“The State of Nicaragua must consider (holding) new general elections,” that message was sent by Vasilka Sancin, vice president of the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations (UN), who presented this Wednesday the periodic report presented by the international entity on the situation in Nicaragua,
Sancin participated in a conference from San José, Costa Rica, which was also attended by Nicaraguan representatives of human rights organizations. The UN delegate insisted to the Nicaraguan regime on the importance of guaranteeing “the right to vote and the presence of international observation” in case of hearing the recommendation to call elections.
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Ortega prescribed five more years in power in the November 2021 votes together with Rosario Murillo. His wife repeats for the second consecutive term as the second in command.
The official also called for the immediate release of political prisoners, both those who were imprisoned during the sociopolitical crisis and those detained prior to the general elections.
Alexandra Salazar, coordinator of the Legal Defense Unit, recalled that Nicaragua is “before a State that instead of guaranteeing and complying with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on the contrary; Under its own rules, it has instrumentalized the national legal system and other rules to violate the rights of citizens in general and guarantee the repression and criminalization of those who oppose it or dare to dissent from the party’s political will.
Along the same lines, Sancin in his speech demanded to guarantee political pluralism and the independence of electoral bodies. The defenders highlighted the violence against women and girls in Nicaragua, the increase in femicides, the lack of protection and the increase in inequality.
The repressive policies, they highlighted, are demonstrated by the torture, isolation and solitary confinement to which Ortega’s political prisoners are subjected, in particular, those who are locked up in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, known as “El Nuevo Chipote”.
For her part, Wendy Flores, coordinator of the Nunca Más Nicaragua Human Rights Collective, sued, taking up the UN report -which has been ignored by the Ortega dictatorship-; an “investigation into the violent crimes against indigenous peoples, the deaths of citizens in prisons and an end to the persecution of journalists”
The three speakers stressed the deterioration of the institutions in Nicaragua, the subhuman conditions to which prisoners of conscience are subjected, and the limitations imposed on the defense, who hinder their work and also persecute them.
Likewise, they condemned the exile and the imposition of the country by prison for dozens of Nicaraguans. “It is an immigration policy aimed at controlling citizens, there is a restriction on the freedom of movement, preventing their departure from the country, stripping Nicaraguan citizens of their passports or banishing them or preventing their return to Nicaragua,” Salazar said.
Sancin called on the State to “consider cooperating with the UN” to work in different areas of human rights and continue relations that facilitate economic cooperation, security and with the international community.
