The international human rights organization Race and Equality held an event in the framework of the 52nd General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) in which it denounced the “torture and imprisonment” of Nicaraguan opponents, at the same time that it demanded your freedom.
Claudia Samayoa, vice president of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), told the plenary that “arbitrary detentions that occur to deprive rights are commonly associated with torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Nicaragua is where they have (detained) everything: from a feminist, a priest, a student or someone who wanted to participate in the Blue and White Movement (Nicaraguan political organization), a police officer who refused to follow orders, this is an expression of authoritarianism,” said the defender during her speech.
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For his part, Commissioner Joel Hernández, Rapporteur on the Rights of Human Rights Defenders and Justice Operators of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), recalled the obligations that States have to protect and prevent attacks against those who defend human rights. human rights in the countries. Considering that “there are various inherent obligations for the State, such as the duty to prevent attacks on the work of defending human rights.”
Race and Equality has carried out a series of actions such as the installation of signs, public projections and photographic exhibitions of Nicaraguan political prisoners in Lima, Peru, which is the seat of the OAS General Assembly, demanding the release of political prisoners and respect for human rights in Nicaragua.
In the Central American country there are 215 people deprived of liberty for political reasons, 10 of these were imprisoned before the social protests of 2018, according to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners of Nicaragua.
The sister of the student leader Lesther Alemán was present at the forum and denounced that «(this October 5), he has been in prison for 15 months and my mom (Lesbia Alfaro) has only been able to see him 10 times. Every day she goes with some bottles of water and hope, sometimes they let her pass and sometimes they don’t,” said Karen González.
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«Since he was detained, Alemán has been one of the victims who has suffered prolonged isolation, physical and psychological torture, poor nutrition and suffers from an undetermined disease in one of his legs that prevents him from walking properly, while the Police prevent him from accessing specialized medical attention”, reiterates Race and Equality.
The situation in Nicaragua is one of the central issues that the foreign ministers of 33 countries will address at the OAS political event. The delegates have prepared the draft resolution “The political and human rights crisis in Nicaragua”, where they express their “deep concern” about the serious situation in the Central American country that is subjugated with an iron fist by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo .
