RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 9: Brazil and Nicaragua expelled each others' ambassadors on Thursday, as souring relations between the two Latin American nations deepened into a fresh diplomatic feud.
A Brazilian diplomatic source told AFP the latest flareup in tensions came after Brazil's ambassador to Nicaragua skipped an official ceremony in Managua.
The event was the July 19 commemoration of Nicaragua's Sandinista revolution that would eventually lead to President Daniel Ortega coming to power, several exiled Nicaraguan opposition media reported.
Brazil's ambassador was not the only diplomat absent from the ceremony, the source noted.
Nicaragua nonetheless asked the Brazilian ambassador to leave the country, leading Brasilia to reciprocate on Thursday.
Brazil's ambassador "has left our country, our Nicaragua, and similarly our ambassador... is on her way to our homeland," Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is also Ortega's wife, told state media.
Relations between the two leftist-led countries have cooled since Ortega ignored attempts by Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to mediate -- at the request of Pope Francis -- talks to help secure the release of a jailed bishop.
In January, Nicaragua released two Roman Catholic bishops, 13 priests and three seminarians, sending them to Rome, according to exiled opposition media.
"This is a tough blow for the Nicaraguan dictatorship because it will become more isolated and alone in Latin America, but above all more isolated and alone within the left-wing Latin American group," the country's former ambassador to the Organization of American States, Arturo McFields, who lives in exile in the United States, told AFP. Later on Thursday, Nicaragua's government said it had released seven priests detained last week and sent them to Rome. —AFP
