The Permanent Foreign Policy Forum (FPPE), an entity made up of academics from Chile with the aim of fostering a foreign policy that promotes democracy, issued a statement condemning the political trials undertaken by the Ortega regime against prisoners of conscience imprisoned in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, known as the new Chipote.
“Faced with this violent scenario, the Permanent Forum on Foreign Policy makes an urgent call to show solidarity with their families and with the democratic movement of the Central American country, which today is suffering a new repressive escalation, under the influence of Law 1055, of ‘Defense of the Rights of the People to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-determination for Peace”, cites the FPPE statement.
The Law for the Defense of the Rights of the People to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-Determination for Peace, known as Sovereignty Law, is one of the four repressive laws approved by Ortega at the end of 2020 in order to intensify the de facto police state imposed by the regime.
“This regulation, approved without debate by the National Assembly, made it possible to silence criticism and suppress political competition in view of the elections on November 7, 2021. Today it is used to sentence prisoners of conscience to jail. The FPPE endorses the statements of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, which denounced the trials as ‘repressive farces that the regime uses to issue convictions and continue intimidating the population until they are completely subjugated,’ the statement added.
This week began the political trials against prisoners of conscience imprisoned in the facilities of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, known as the new Chipote. political prisoners Ana Margarita Vijil and the guerrilla commander Dora Maria Tellez, prisoners of conscience Yader Parajon and Yaser Vado, journalist and presidential candidate Miguel Mora, former first lady Maria Fernanda Flores and the student leader Lesther German, have already been tried and convicted by the regime, mainly for alleged “conspiracy to undermine national integrity to the detriment of the State and Nicaraguan society.”
“We also welcome the statement issued by the Mothers of April Association (AMA), made up of the relatives of the fatal victims of the 2018 social outbreak, who denounce that the trials full of arbitrariness and violations of human rights, ‘should not only be declared null but considered a new wave of ‘crimes against humanity’, adds the FPPE brief.
The elected president of Chile, the leftist, Gabriel Boric, spoke on Twitter about the conviction of Dora María Téllez, calling it “a shame”. Antonia Urrejola, former rapporteur of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and future Minister of Foreign Affairs of Boric’s cabinet, reiterated from the international community a call for “democratization and the release of political prisoners in the country.”
Trials began today for opponents imprisoned in #Nicaragua, without judicial independence or legal bases. From the international community, we continue to constructively call for democratization and the release of political prisoners in the country #SOSNicaragua
– Antonia Urrejola (@totonia68) February 2, 2022
“As part of the Latin American democratic and progressive movement, the FPPE calls on democratic governments and international organizations in the region not to remain impassive in the face of the serious events taking place in Nicaragua. Call in particular at UN Human Rights Council in its 49th session that begins on February 28 to prevent the normalization of the concentration of power, the weakening of the rule of law, arbitrariness and the violation of human rights in the land of Augusto César Sandino, where dozens of young people fought for justice and freedom, today so far away”, adds the letter.
The FPPE is made up of 75 participants, acting individually, with extensive government, parliamentary, academic experience, in multilateral and representative bodies of Chile, among others, and whose joint objective is a broad spectrum of progressive thought.
