U.S. human rights criticism aimed at destabilizing countries, says Nicaragua's top diplomat

MANAGUA, July 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. criticism of human rights abroad is aimed at destabilizing other countries, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada has said.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Moncada said Washington "deceitfully uses human rights as part of a strategy to perpetuate its hegemony and cut off the independent development paths chosen by different peoples around the world."

"Human rights are inherent to human beings" and "are written equally for the whole world," but Western powers exploit them to advance their own agenda, said Moncada.

"They are being used politically to meddle in the internal affairs of countries. They have turned them into a banner to discredit governments and, if possible, overthrow them, replacing them with ones that suit their particular interests, which are different from the interests of the peoples," Moncada said.

"That is their objective, to set themselves up as the defenders of human rights, freedom and democracy, and paint other countries as violators of those rights, so that their governments can be overthrown by the imperialist powers," he added.

Moncada condemned the participation of some media in this strategy "through fake news that distorts the economic, social and political reality of independent countries that do not agree with Washington, making them appear as human rights violators."

In recent years, criticism of countries like Nicaragua has been part of a strategy that seeks to repeat "the unjust wars against Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria," Moncada said.

The war in Syria, he said, "constituted a clear example of imperialist interventionism in the name of human rights, manipulating and politicizing those rights, as well as the implementation of bloody state terrorism with the participation of the U.S. military-industrial complex."

Such intervention is "all for the geopolitical control of vast areas in other continents, and the seizure of the main natural energy and mineral resources for the benefit of transnational corporations and other capitalist powers allied with the U.S. scheme of global domination," said Moncada.

Interference in the internal affairs of other countries has defined U.S. actions around the globe and continues to do so, he said.

"They continue to impose illegal and arbitrary sanctions, which violate people's human rights, hindering the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals approved by the United Nations," he added.

Nicaraguans struggling for peace, independence, sovereignty and the wellbeing of their nation "have been the target of attacks orchestrated by the United States in the name of human rights," said Moncada.

"These attacks have manifested themselves in various ways, including the imposition of unilateral, illegal and arbitrary measures that in times of pandemic constitute crimes against humanity and contravene the norms of international law and the very Charter of the United Nations," Moncada said.