The International Human Rights Network Europe (RIDHE) and the Inter-American Legal Assistance Center on Human Rights (Calidh) made a joint statement rejecting the stripping of nationality from 317 Nicaraguans.
In the statement “they express their energetic rejection of the latest events: the exile and stripping of the nationality of 222 Nicaraguans, the sentence to 26 years in prison of the Bishop of Matagalpa Rolando Álvarez, the permanence in jail of 35 political prisoners and the dispossession of of nationality, and imposition of the sentence of treason against the homeland, among other infamous sentences, of 94 Nicaraguans.”
Related news: Opponents denounce that stripping Nicaraguans of their nationality constitutes “State terrorism”
They also expressed “their solidarity with the victims and relatives of all these human rights violations and reiterate that through Calidh, through its Legal Assistance Program for Victims -Phillippe Guerin.”
They affirmed that the families that have been affected by the new provisions of the Ortega regime can count on accompaniment to seek new justice alternatives “systematically denied by the Nicaraguan government and with the support of RIDHE and the PRODEPAZ Network.”
Absolute erosion of the Rule of Law in Nicaragua
Both RIDHE and Calidh remarked their “deep concern about the absolute erosion of the rule of law in Nicaragua, as well as the climate of suppression of human rights.”
They stressed that Nicaragua is totally defenseless and “at the mercy of a system that has unconstitutionally centralized all state functions in the Executive Branch.”
They also denounced that vulnerable groups and individuals are increasingly exposed to violence due to the absence of a State that guarantees their rights.
Regarding the 222 exiled political exiles, the imprisonment and stripping of nationality of Monsignor Álvarez and the 94 are Nicaraguans, the organizations affirmed that the actions by the State of Nicaragua are illegal “because each one of them has in their natural state nationality as an inherent right that cannot be taken away by arbitrary laws or even by constitutional reform.
On the other hand, they urged the international community to continue to closely observe the situation in Nicaragua and to recognize the nationality of all those deprived of their right, declaring that Nicaragua has gone too far and has distorted the concepts of sovereignty, self-determination and independence on which this sufficient consensus in the international community.
Related news: The United States condemns stripping of nationality to 94 Nicaraguans
On the list of stateless persons, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega included 222 former political prisoners on February 9 whom it exiled to the United States, then, on the 15th of the same month, it stripped 94 citizens of their nationality, headed by priests, journalists, opponents and human rights defenders.
Sources have revealed that the list of citizens whose nationality Ortega will strip could increase, which would be another wave of repression against Nicaraguans.
