By Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega’s son, an influential figure in the country’s leftist government, has reached out quietly to the Biden administration in recent months seeking to re-engage with the United States, according to people familiar with the matter.
Laureano Ortega’s overture comes as he, other family members and those in his father’s inner circle face U.S. sanctions, and Managua’s ally Russia is increasingly isolated by Washington and other Western powers over President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The United States and Nicaragua have been at odds for years but relations took an especially hard hit when Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla, won a fourth consecutive term in November after jailing political rivals and cracking down on critical media. U.S. President Joe Biden dismissed the election as a sham. [nL1N2RZ0GR]
Laureano Ortega, one of the president’s most politically powerful offspring, communicated in recent months via an unnamed third party that the Nicaraguan government was interested in restarting a high-level dialogue with the United States, two people in Washington familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
The New York Times first reported the outreach.
Laureano Ortega, an investment and trade adviser to his father, is believed to be seeking sanctions relief and may be willing to discuss releasing political prisoners in exchange, one person familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.
A senior U.S. official traveled secretly to Managua in March for a planned meeting with him but the Ortegas decided not to go ahead with the talks, the source said.
However, the source added, the Biden administration has concluded that the Nicaraguan government “at some point may be ready to have a real conversation,” especially if it has to revise geopolitical calculations about its relationship with Russia.
Despite the recent contact, Nicaragua has been informed that it will be excluded from the U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas in Los Angles in June, according to the source.
The State Department has previously stated that Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government are unlikely to be invited because the summit is meant to showcase democracy in the Western Hemisphere.
The Nicaraguan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Additional reporting by Ismael López in Managua; Editing by Richard Chang)
