Organizations of civil society and victims of human rights violations in Nicaragua denounced before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) the recent attack by the Daniel Ortega regime to strip 317 citizens of their Nicaraguan nationality.
“The loss of nationality has meant that these people are stripped of their family, cultural, and customs ties, deleting their public records, including their birth certificates, confiscating their property,” the lawyer denounced. Yader Valdiviaof the Human Rights Collective Nicaragua Nunca Más, in a public audience held on Friday, March 11.
The IACHR report also highlights that “this situation has generated various health effects such as post-traumatic stress, anxiety and insomnia, recurrent feelings of anguish, colitis, among other symptoms. All of them without people being able to access the required psychosocial care.
Minors, relatives of those affected, are also experiencing stress and uncertainty derived from the statelessness of their close ones, “even children have shown that their right to decent roots and identity has been affected.”
Carmen Herrera, from the Race and Equality Institute, indicated that they are “greatly concerned that this situation continues to worsen, since 37 people still remain in prisons in the same or worse conditions; arrests continue, highlighting the situation of Monsignor Rolando Alvarez and fanor ramoswhose families have not seen since February 9unaware of its location.
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Lucia Pineda, director of the 100% Noticias outlet, denounced that the persecution has crossed borders by stripping them of their nationality and property, despite being in exile; For this reason, she asked the Commission to inform, through the corresponding channels, the Government of Costa Rica and other nations “that they activate their security measures in the face of persecution” because she has no doubt that “the dictatorship wants to eliminate them completely.” .
For his part, the lawyer Uriel Pinedadeclared stateless, warned that “forced transfer is a crime against humanity” and asked the agency to grant precautionary measures to those affected.
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At the time of the exile and stripping of their nationality, at least 87 people were beneficiaries of provisional measures granted by the Inter-American Court, and at least another dozen were beneficiaries of precautionary measures from the IACHR, however, “the State has failed to comply with its international obligations and On the contrary, it has aggravated the violation of rights.”
The health situation worsens in the case of older adults, the agency indicates. At least 31 of the 94 people stripped of their nationality are over 60 years of age.
In this regard, the expatriate feminist Ana Quiroz , said «almost 40 years of contributions have expropriated them. I’m not young, what will my future be? It affects my children because they are the children of a single mother. What last name will they have if they have deleted me? I feel that there is a particular rage again because I am a woman, a feminist and a lesbian ».
Quiroz asked the body to request the States that have offered protection and nationality to stateless persons to report on the mechanisms to exercise that offer and the scope of the offer in terms of their families and social groups.
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The commissioner of the IACHR Joel Hernandez Garcia He stated that this “generous offer” from the countries has to become operational, so knowing in detail the specific needs of those affected is important to see how the Commission can bring these countries closer to people who need special protection.
Commissioner Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño described the situation of stateless Nicaraguans as “difficult, complex, absurd and so full of terror.”
“To express to the Government of (Daniel) Ortega and (Rosario) Murillo that they reflect on their condition, first, as leaders of a country and second, and of greater strength, on their condition as human beings, and what humanity of all Nicaraguans must be respected by that Government”.
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Between February 9 and 15, the Ortega y Murillo regime declared 317 people “traitors to the homeland,” of these 222 were exiled to the United States and 94 were announced in the middle of the month. Along with the outburst of Nicaraguan citizenship, he also ordered the confiscation of their assets.
The more than 300 Nicaraguans declared stateless would have been accused by the Public Ministry for the crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity in real competition with the crime of spreading false news through information and communication technology, all to the detriment of the State of Nicaragua and society.
