Through a letter addressed to the São Paulo Forum, in Brazil, Nicaraguan opponents denounced “the regime of terror” that Nicaragua is experiencing due to the repressive escalation that the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has maintained for more than five years in the country.
The political activists pointed out that “every day” the Sandinista administration “violates all civil liberties, annihilates democracy and justice, and subjects the people to oppression worse than that imposed by the previous dictatorship,” referring to the Somoza dictatorship. .
«Daniel Ortega and what remains of the Sandinista Front present themselves as leftists and anti-imperialists, however, far from that proclaimed discourse, for many years they have begun a process of abandoning their principles, through corruption, alliances with the worst right of the country, strengthening of a neoliberal model that increases the already enormous inequalities and extreme poverty of the population, concentration of political and economic power in his family and close friends,” they stressed.
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They also denounced the brutal repression perpetrated by the Sandinista government during the 2018 social protests. “The protesters mobilized massively, demanding democracy, justice, electoral reforms, and the resignation of Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo; erected barricades and barricades, which were demolished weeks later by police forces and paramilitaries in the so-called “Operation Cleaning”, they recalled.
“The government’s narrative that it was nothing more than a “failed coup financed by US imperialism” is countered by convincing reports from international organizations, which documented and denounced the numerous human rights violations and pointed out crimes against humanity. committed by the Nicaraguan authorities, reports recently ratified by the Group of Experts designated by the UN Human Rights Council,” they added.
Human rights violations in Nicaragua
Ortega’s detractors also exposed a series of events that occurred in the years after 2018, such as the cancellation of the legal status of more than 4,000 non-governmental organizations, the closure of independent media outlets, the imprisonment and forced exile of priests due to of the persecution that the regime maintains against the Catholic Church and the banning of opposition political parties.
They denounced the release and exile of 222 political prisoners, who were sent to Washington by the dictatorial regime in Nicaragua, which also stripped them of their nationality.
They also pointed out that Bishop Rolando Álvarez, after refusing to be exiled, the Nicaraguan justice system sentenced him to 26 years and four months in prison and remains locked up in a cell for high-risk prisoners.
Ortega’s critics also stressed that “six days later, 94 more Nicaraguans were stripped of their nationality and their political rights, they were declared traitors to their country and fugitives from justice, and their assets and pensions were expropriated.”
«Five years later, the lying story of the «coup attempt», used by Ortega and Murillo, is distorted. Ortega is the worst of the neoliberal dictators. With his policies and aggressions they try to screw themselves into power and inherit it from his sons, as the Somozas did. Nothing justifies continuing to suffer from his repression,” the letter reads.
Due to the above, the opponents request “the parties and organizations that make up the São Paulo Forum to denounce and condemn the regime of terror that exists in Nicaragua, which is incompatible with the principles of a left that claims to be an alternative to the the injustices of the world in which we live.
«You cannot be anti-imperialist by annihilating all civil society and suppressing all liberties. We only ask that you raise your voice in favor of human rights in Nicaragua and for the remaining 70 political prisoners, and that those who are government also do so in the organizations where they have representatives, such as the United Nations, the OAS and CELAC, “they added.
The signatories of the letter are: Sergio Ramírez Mercado, Gioconda Belli, Dora María Téllez, Luis Carrión Cruz, Mónica Baltodano, Ernesto Medina, Carlos Fernando Chamorro, Sofía Montenegro, Óscar René Vargas, Julio C. López Campos, Azahálea Solís, Irving Larios , Hector Mairena, Patricia Orozco and Haydee Castillo.
