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A group of UN experts accused the Nicaraguan government of exponentially increasing human rights violations over the last year, presenting this Thursday a report that calls for the strengthening of international sanctions against Managua.
The Human Rights Group report on Nicaragua states that the government of President Daniel Ortega commits “abuses and crimes” to “eliminate all critical voices and dissuade, in the long term, any new organization and social mobilization initiative”.
“The government of Nicaragua “it continues to perpetrate serious systematic violations of human rights, equivalent to crimes against humanity, for political reasons”, declared the Group, reiterating expressions from the report presented a year ago.
However, “the situation has worsened” in the last year due to the “consolidation and centralization of all powers and institutions of the State”, especially the judicial power, in the hands of Ortega and his wife and vice-president, Rosario Murillo, he adds . .
“During 2023 there was an exponential increase in patterns of violations focused on disabling any type of long-term opposition,” according to the document.
“President Ortega, Vice President Murillo and the senior officials identified in the investigation must be held accountable to the international community,” said think tank president Jan Simon.
The group of experts is independent and was created in 2022 under a mandate from the UN Human Rights Council to investigate abuses committed in Nicaragua since April 2018, when protests broke out against the Ortega government, whose repression left 355 dead and hundreds of people detained (opponents, social leaders, businesspeople, journalists).
spiral of silence
The report highlights that the repression of all real or imaginary opposition “has become more subtle” and targets in particular “university students, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant peoples, peasants and members of the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations”.
On February 9, 2023, the Ortega government released 222 political prisoners, expelled them to the United States and stripped them of their nationality, accusing them of “traitors to the country”. A week later, he withdrew the nationality of 94 dissidents in exile, including writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli.
A week ago, Ortega justified the removal of the nationality of these 316 Nicaraguans he sent into exile, accusing them of “traitors” and “selling out the country”.
A bishop, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, was also arrested and deprived of his nationality in 2023, but preferred prison to exile. Last January he was released from prison, along with 16 other priests and two seminarians, and sent to Rome under an agreement with the Vatican.
Likewise, more than 3,500 NGOs, many of them religious, were closed in Nicaragua since 2018 and its assets passed into the hands of the State. Catholic universities, the Red Cross and the Boy Scouts suffered the same fate.
“The government has consolidated a spiral of silence that disables any potential opposition,” Simon said.
Immediate measures
The report maintains that “boys and girls have been violated” by the activities or opinions of their parents or relatives, and “deportations and bans on entry into Nicaragua resulted in the separation” of many families.
“The centralization of power not only ensures impunity for perpetrators, but also undermines efforts to achieve accountability. The government has made a point of remaining in an increasingly solid bubble to perpetuate itself in power”, said expert Ariela Peralta.
Furthermore, “the persecution extends beyond the borders of the Nicaraguagiven the effects of deprivation of nationality and legal personality, the lack of access to official documentation and consular support”, said specialist Ángela Buitrago.
“The effect on the population of Nicaragua is devastating. To the city of Nicaragua and the international community will require a significant amount of time and resources to recover all that has been lost,” Simon said.
Ortega, 78 years old, in power since 2007 and successively re-elected in disputed elections, faces a wave of condemnation from the international community due to his authoritarian tendency.
The group urged the international community “to take immediate action, in particular by expanding sanctions against individuals and institutions involved in human rights violations.”
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
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