The United Nations Committee Against Torture announced Friday that the Nicaraguan authorities have refused to comment on their latest report of abuses in the country, where they denounced patterns of mistreatment of detainees after the 2018 protests and in the 2021 elections.
An interim report denouncing these abuses, also carried out without the collaboration of the Nicaraguan side, was published on a provisional basis at the end of July. awaiting a reply from the Government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, but after four months without reply, it was definitively adapted in November, according to the committee.
The report stressed that deadly force was used against peaceful protesters in 2018 and 2021when between 170 and 190 people were arbitrarily detained for political reasons and there were also accusations of torture and forced disappearances.
The document claimed to have verified that in some arrests detainees were held incommunicado for up to 90 dayswhile interrogations were carried out without the presence of lawyers, sometimes involving beatings, threats and sleep deprivation, later denying access to medical services.
According to the report, the abuses are committed in a regime of “total absence of separation of powers in the State” aimed at “using criminal law to criminalize dissent, violate procedural guarantees and contribute to impunity.”
Particularly serious situations were cited for prisoners in penitentiary institutions such as La Modelo and La Esperanza in Tipitapa, as well as for those detained in the cells of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), known as El Chipote.
The committee added to these denunciations attacks against human rights defenders, journalists, social leaders, representatives of religious confessions and members of the oppositiona crackdown that has contributed “to an exodus of more than 150,000 people to neighboring Costa Rica” as others try to reach the United States.
Regime prevents visit of a UN Subcommittee
The United Nations Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT-UN) reported this week that suspended his plan to visit Nicaragua, scheduled for next year, due to the lack of cooperation of the Ortega regime.
“It is the first time that we have encountered such a widespread refusal to cooperate”said in a statement the president of the SPT, Suzanne Jabbour, who indicated that they have referred this “serious matter” to the UN Committee Against Torture.
“It is extremely regrettable that Nicaragua refuses to cooperate with the subcommittee in the plans to make our second visit to the country”, he commented.
The visit of the Subcommittee is part of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT)which was ratified by Nicaragua in 2009.
The subcommittee presented a report with recommendations to the Nicaraguan authorities after its first and so far only visit to the country between May 7 and 16, 2014, but to date the government of Ortega and Murillo has kept it secret and its content is unknown.
