Women coffee pickers and peasant housewives from the department of Jinotega complain about the harassment of which they are victims, by the Ortega police who patrol the farms.
One of them who asked to make the complaint anonymously, for fear of reprisals, said that a police officer who was identified as Pablo, asked her for her cell phone number under the pretext of contacting her as part of the work to protect the farms.
His scare was that he began to receive personal messages from the officer in which he even disrespected him. “Not only I have received messages, other women receive them from other policemen, instead of talking about the issue of security they make us fall in love, we receive harassment. That should not be so, ”he complained.
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Another young housewife said she felt “harassed and under pressure” because one of the policemen told her that he knew where she lived and that he could visit her when her partner was in court. “That is an abuse and a threat,” she denounced.
Other excesses
The complainants also affirm that they have learned that the police have mistreated and even beaten young people from the communities for no reason and many mothers have remained silent because they are told that if they report, it would be worse for them.
“These bad cops are sowing terror in this area. We feel totally unprotected ”, lamented a mother of a beaten son who also asked to speak under the condition of her identity.
“A teenager was beaten, just because he was playing in front of the health center with a ball, that is not a crime,” another mother complained.
Lack of protection policies
A Jinotegan sociologist consulted for this report on the complaint of peasant women, stated that the problem is that the laws in Nicaragua are now worthless paper.
“The government is more concerned with repressing and silencing and not protecting women, protection mechanisms do not exist, the people who are in the police stations do not receive training on gender violence, and women do not report violence, because they do not there is credibility in those institutions, and if they denounce a Sandinista official they will in fact lose the case. That is why the police do what they should not ”, he criticized.
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He recalled that it is at this time that the absence of civil organizations for the protection of women that were destroyed by the government is felt. “Right now they would be investigating this abuse and alerting higher authorities to what is happening,” she says.
She added that another problem is that peasant women are alone, since many husbands and children have gone into exile or have emigrated, which means that homes are now under the responsibility of women and corrupt policemen take advantage of that. “This is serious,” warned the expert on issues of gender violence.
