For Nicaragua, International Case Against Germany Is Déjà Vu

For Nicaragua’s representative to the International Court of Justice, this week’s hearing before the World Court was a case of déjà vu.

But experts in the Central American nation saw it as a cynical move by a totalitarian government to bolster its profile and distract attention from its own worsening record of repression.

Weeks after being sharply criticized by a United Nations investigatory team for human rights violations, Nicaragua, a longtime supporter of the Palestinian cause, on Monday took Germany to the international court at The Hague for supplying arms to Israel.

After accusing Germany of ignoring what it called clear signs of genocide, Nicaragua asked the court to order Germany to cease arms sales to Israel.

Carlos J. Argüello Gómez, Nicaragua’s agent before the U.N.’s 15-judge court known as the ICJ, said the case was a throwback to when Nicaragua sued the United States before the same court. At the time, the United States was supporting a group known as the Contras, a counterrevolutionary force that sought to overthrow Nicaragua’s left-wing Sandinista government.

“The present case is different, but it has a striking similarity,” Mr. Argüello told the court in a speech Monday.

Tuesday marks that case’s official 40-year anniversary. It’s also when Germany is expected to address the court in response to Nicaragua’s accusation.

Nicaragua’s president, Daniel Ortega, and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, probably hope to bolster their international image by spearheading a case against Israel and its allies, said Mateo Jarquín, a Nicaraguan historian at Chapman University in California.

“Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front party has a long track record, dating back to its time in power in the 1980s, of using global bodies like the ICJ to carve out space for itself internationally — to build legitimacy and resist diplomatic isolation,” Mr. Jarquín said. “It’s unclear if in this case they will be as successful as they were in the past.”

In the 1984 dispute, the United States was ordered to cease and desist any support for any paramilitary forces in Nicaragua. The U.S. questioned the court’s jurisdiction and Nicaragua withdrew the case a few years later after the Sandinistas lost power through an election.

Mr. Jarquín noted the irony: The U.N. has accused Mr. Ortega and his wife of crimes against humanity in the six years since hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across the country to demand their ouster.

The couple are accused of unleashing harsh police firepower against civilians during those protests, leaving hundreds of people dead.

In the ensuing years, they have manipulated the judiciary and legislative branches of government to consolidate their own power, investigators concluded. Hundreds of people were jailed and thousands more forced into exile.

“The world is aware that the current government of Nicaragua lacks the moral and political authority to speak or advocate for human rights, much less on matters of genocide,” said Manuel Orozco, who studies Nicaragua for the Inter-American Dialogue, a research institute in Washington.

“At most, this is a distraction from their own affairs,” he said, noting a recent report by members of the British Parliament that suggested taking Nicaragua before the ICJ for human rights violations.