A group of special rapporteurs of the United Nations Organization (UN) warned that the arbitrary closure of hundreds of Civil society organizations in Nicaragua “it is very worrying and would have a chilling effect on activists and human rights defenders”, with “even more devastating consequences” on marginalized people and groups.
The experts sent a letter to the Daniel Ortega regime in which they point out that the outlawing of NGOs represents “a clear pattern of repression of civic space” and lament the improper use of anti-terrorist and anti-money laundering laws to restrict, unnecessarily and disproportionately, the civil society activities and fundamental freedoms.
The UN experts urged the State to refrain from decreeing more closures and to revoke these restrictions.
The UN Committee Against Torture expressed this Friday its concern about the use of lethal force, arbitrary arrests, acts of torture and ill-treatment, as well as forced disappearances at the hands of the Nicaraguan Police, parapolice and other actors, reported during the 2018 protests. and during the 2021 electoral process.
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The organization urged the Nicaraguan authorities to quickly and independently investigate these abuses and adequately compensate the victims. In turn, he asked that the rights of detainees be respected and that the necessary measures be taken to prevent repression and violence against human rights defenders, journalists and opposition leaders. The Committee reiterated the call to release arbitrarily detained persons.
Just one day after the Nicaraguan regime appointed Orlando Jose Gomez Zamora As Minister Counselor with consular functions at the Embassy of Venezuela, Daniel Ortega formalized the dismissal of María Isabel Martínez Chavarría from the position of ambassador in the South American country.
Martínez Chavarría held the position for two months, replacing Orlando Gómez, who had only been in office for three months, but was sent to China. However, Ortega decided to return it to the administration of Nicolás Maduro for unreported reasons. Orlando Gómez has been characterized as a defender of Ortega, holding various diplomatic positions of trust in recent years.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounced the authoritarian drift of Daniel Ortega against the independent media in Nicaragua. The organization’s statement comes after the exile of the entire editorial staff of the newspaper La Prensa due to the increase in police persecution against the media’s workers.
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The director of the organization’s Office in Latin America, Emmanuel Colombié, indicated that it is “as terrifying as it is intolerant” that the regime has deployed its «repressive apparatus to reduce journalists to silence. He warned that “the independent press in Nicaragua is in a phase of agony and the voices critical of the authorities are inexorably disappearing.”
Attorney Álvaro Leiva, executive secretary and legal representative of the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (ANPDH), sent a letter to Pope Francisco in which he asks to excommunicate Rosario Murillo for the “mortal sins” he has committed against the people.
The document indicates that the regime’s spokeswoman has caused “the death of the innocent soul of hundreds of Nicaraguans with her fascist acts and diabolical practices.” In addition, the also wife of Daniel Ortega and illegitimate vice president of Nicaragua makes use of a peculiar religious syncretism that she uses at her convenience, validates the practice of witchcraft and induces the people to live in sin. Leiva also denounced to the Vatican the persecution of the Nicaraguan Catholic Church and the violation of religious freedom.
