President Daniel Ortega, accompanied by his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, addresses supporters in Managua (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga)
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) called on Latin American countries to take action “Repression and Human Rights Violations in Nicaragua”Days ahead of the OAS General Assembly, in a statement released Friday.
The government of President Daniel Ortega, who has been in power in Nicaragua since 2007 and was re-elected in disputed 2021 elections, has multiplied arrests of opponents since the 2018 anti-government protests. And last February, 222 political prisoners were stripped of their citizenship and deported to the United States.
In the statement, the IACHR – which is affiliated with the Organization of American States (OAS) – calls on the Nicaraguan government to stop “for persecution” and release of all “arbitrarily” detained prisoners.
The IACHR “rejects the ongoing repression and human rights abuses in Nicaragua” and insists that the confiscation of the assets of the 222 released prisoners is “an arbitrary and disproportionate criminal sanction,” the text reads.
Daniel Ortega during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly of People’s Power of Cuba (Yamil Lage/Pool via Portal)
It also calls on the Latin American countries, the international community and the political bodies of the OAS to do the same “Promote a return to democracy” in the country.
She also expresses her concern about the “arbitrary policies” of the authorities when entering or leaving the country. He says he has received information through his Special Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua (MESENI) “about the withdrawal and arbitrary withholding of passports or refusal to issue” documents to prevent some citizens from traveling abroad.
The IACHR also denounces it “Return Ban Cases” of Nicaraguans who find themselves in a situation of forced displacement that has led to the “forced separation” of many families.
It also indicates “new”. arbitrary arrests” by activists, journalists and members of the Catholic Church between April and May.
“Critical parts of the Catholic Church” continue to be targeted by the authorities and one of the most well-known figures, Bishop Rolando Alvarez Lagos, “He has remained incommunicado since March 25” in a punishment cell, he reports.
The arrests of more than 140 people during Holy Week commemoration of the 2018 protests and police operations “were marked by disproportionate use of force and violent raids,” the agency said.
Some were temporary, he says, though “Dozens of people have been charged in secret hearings” or subjected to the “house to jail” measure that keeps them “in a situation of fear, siege and constant persecution.”
The organization also condemned the disqualification of 26 lawyers in May for creating an “environment of fear and self-censorship” and “exacerbating repression” against indigenous communities by armed settlers “acting with the connivance of the authorities.”
The so-called Nicaraguan Fighting Coalition, consisting of 20 organizations that campaign for human rights, yesterday warned of the crisis in the freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the Central American country.
In a statement, these organizations “reminded the entire world of the crisis facing the exercise of fundamental freedoms in Nicaragua, where the right to freedom of expression and access to information has been totally curtailed in this new phase of state rejuvenation.” Persecution under the Authoritarian Regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo”.
They warned that “the profession of journalism and communications has been threatened, harassed and prosecuted in Nicaragua in recent years” and they are documented in “extensive reports of the Universal System and the Inter-American System of Human Rights.”
(With information from AFP and EFE)
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Debate in the OAS on the Nicaraguan dictatorship: Brazil faces the group of countries condemning the Ortega regime. The Daniel Ortega regime has frozen the personal bank accounts of several Nicaraguan priests