A group of 45 countries of the United Nations Organization (UN) denounced, through a joint letter, before the Human Rights Council of that organization, that in Nicaragua the regime of Daniel Ortega “has continued to repress rights” and “liberties” of Nicaraguans.
“Nicaragua has continued to repress the rights to the freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, and of religion; This year alone, it has canceled the legal personality of 1,112 human rights, development, professional associations, including medical associations, among others. Twelve universities have also seen their legal personality cancelled, impacting the right to education. The enjoyment of freedom of opinion and expression also worsened, with more journalists forced into exile, and due to the recent closure of 12 radio and television outlets of the Catholic Church, especially in Matagalpa”; points to part of the letter presented by the delegation of Ecuador on behalf of the 45 countries.
In addition, they urged the Nicaraguan authorities to “collaborate openly with human rights mechanisms, restore civic space, release all political prisoners, ensure judicial independence, end politically motivated arrests and repression of independent media as well as minorities, cooperate with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and implement its recommendations.
The letter was signed Australia, Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany and the United States.
Also through Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Uruguay.
The denunciation of the group of countries occurred after the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN (Oacnudh) denounced before the Human Rights Council. of that organization that “the human rights situation in Nicaragua has progressively deteriorated since 2018 without the Government having shown the political will to confront the crisis through dialogue and the implementation of recommendations formulated by human rights mechanisms.”
The organization indicated that the constant violations of the rights of association, press, expression, freedom and justice, among others, raise fears about the way in which the municipal votes will be held next November.
“The attacks on freedom of association have increased exponentially. This year, the legal personality of 1,512 human rights organizations, development assistance organizations, professional associations, including medical ones, and entities associated with the Catholic Church has been cancelled,” said Oacnudh.
Mass closure of NGOs
The director of Field Operations of the Office of the UN High Commissioner, Christian Salazar, indicated that with this new wave of repression, there are already 1,578 organizations that have been forced to close since 2018, the year in which citizens came to the fore. streets to demand democratic reforms, a movement that was crushed with great violence.
Nearly 200 people remain in arbitrary detention in connection with the socio-political crisis that has been going on since then. Of them, fifty were imprisoned in the electoral context of 2021 and recently sentenced, some up to 13 years in prison in trials that were not fair, the UN said.
Even prison is not enough for the authorities, since many of these prisoners have been denied any contact with their families for more than a year, according to the report presented to the UN Human Rights Council, which meets in Geneva.
Attacks against the Catholic Church
In the presentation, it was mentioned that in a large police operation, transmission equipment was seized from a Catholic radio station that broadcast from a parish in Sébaco, Matagalpa, whose bishop, along with eight other people, were arrested and transferred to the capital, Managua. .
The events occurred in mid-August and a judge extended their detention for ninety days.
Freedom of the press is also being stifled, with 20 TV and radio stations closed this year alone, most of them religious in nature, while many staff members of the country’s biggest newspaper have been forced into exile.
They join the 120 journalists who have fled the country since 2018.
This crisis situation has led to 200,000 Nicaraguans becoming refugees and asylum seekers, 75% of them in Costa Rica.
The seriousness of exile is also evident through the numbers of migrants from Nicaragua detained by the United States border authorities, which have risen from around 5,500 in 2018 to more than 84,000 so far this year.
The attorney general of Nicaragua, Wendy Morales, faithful to the script of the Ortega-Murillo regime, totally rejected the OHCHR report, warning that the Government does not accept the recommendations it makes, which include initiating a national dialogue and freeing political prisoners.
He argued that the United States and other Western countries use these recommendations “to try to submit us to their will” and that in reality it is “a way of meddling in the internal affairs of Nicaragua.”
