Nicaragua: Ex-Diplomat Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann Dies at 84

Former Nicaraguan diplomat, priest and intellectual Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann died Thursday, months after suffering a stroke.

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D’Escoto Brockmann, 84, was a longtime leader within the Sandinista National Liberation Front, FSLN, and served as foreign minister of Nicaragua from 1979–1990. He was also the president of the United Nations General Assembly from 2008 to 2009.

News of his death was released by Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo.

“He was a brother who was never sad,” Murillo said in a public statement.

“He was an unyielding brother, a brother who fought with the people, for the people, together with the people, for all of our just causes.”

D'Escoto Brockmann was born in the United States because his father, Miguel Escoto, was a diplomat for former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Garcia. In the 1970s, however, after being ordained a priest, he embraced socialism and liberation theology, eventually joining the FSLN in its armed struggle against Somoza.

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Upon taking state power in 1979, the FSLN appointed D'Escoto Brockmann as their top diplomat, building relations with a number of other Latin American countries — most notably with Cuba.

When FSLN leader and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2007, D'Escoto Brockmann was asked to move to New York City to serve as Nicaragua's representative before the United Nations.

Although Pope John Paul II banned D'Escoto Brockmann from celebrating Mass in 1984 because of his leftist political ideology, he was later allowed to partake in the ceremony in 2014 once Pope Francis ended the prohibition.

“Father, priest, friend, comrade, godfather, and supporter of all just causes, we will forever miss you,” Murillo added.

“A better world, a world of love, is possible — that was the motto of Miguel.”