A total of 45 United Nations countries issued a statement on Tuesday in the face of the worsening of the political crisis in Nicaragua under the administration of President Daniel Ortega.
Christian Salazar Volkmann, director of the UN Office for Human Rights, updated the situation in Managua before the Council of the organization, denouncing that in recent months the persecution against voices critical of Ortega has expanded.
Similarly, he stressed that there is no national dialogue that can put an end to this situation, which will be four years old in April 2022.
Salazar commented that the Ortega government has continued its attempts to silence critical and dissident voices in Nicaragua, drastically reducing civic space.
The head of the Office also expressed his extreme concern about the “arbitrary detention of at least 195 people in relation to the socio-political crisis”. “50 of these people were imprisoned in the 2021 electoral context and sentenced this year – in some cases up to for 13 years in prison – without due process,” he added.
He highlighted that harassment has been documented against human rights defenders, journalists, and against members of the Catholic Church.
He recalled that the restrictions on freedom of expression have intensified, especially with the closure of at least 20 radio and television stations during 2022, most of them local.
The declaration had little support from Central American countries, such as Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, who did not appear in the declaration, contrary to Costa Rica, one of the main countries of refuge for Nicaraguan exiles, along with Panama.
Colombia joined the declaration, as its Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva had advanced in an exclusive interview with the Colombian media WRadius.
According to the local media outlet Confidencial, Nicaragua, through the Attorney General of the Republic, Wendy Morales, rejected the Oacnudh report, and assured that she does not accept the recommendations that, in her opinion, “try to submit us to their will.”
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