Opposition leader Dora María Téllez, a former political prisoner exiled by the Sandinista dictatorship, said on Friday that hate crimes and widespread violence in Nicaragua are fueled by the hate speech constantly uttered by dictators Ortega and Murillo and backed by the impunity they promote by releasing thousands of dangerous common prisoners without having served their sentences.
In the last week, three heinous crimes were recorded in the country, in which the victims were: a child in Catarina, murdered by his brother; a woman who was the victim of femicide, in the facilities of the Military Hospital in Managua, at the hands of her ex-partner; and a man whose life was stabbed to death by his wife and son in Jinotepe, Carazo.
The guerrilla commander, now in the opposition, declared herself, like all Nicaraguans, “deeply moved” by these murders and noted that “all these crimes have to do with the hate speech that the Ortega-Murillo regime spreads every day in Nicaragua.”
Téllez warns that the violence and hatred that leads to such murders are a consequence of the dictators’ legitimization of violence.
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He also argues that the Ortega-Murillo family regime promotes impunity for such violent acts by releasing thousands of common prisoners convicted of serious crimes who, on the occasion of their political parties, are sent out onto the streets without having served their respective sentences.
“They are bringing many people who are in prison out onto the streets, including rapists and murderers of women, while they are imprisoning, kidnapping and making priests and journalists disappear,” the opposition leader denounced.
Between 2014 and July 2024, the Nicaraguan regime released more than 1,000 people from prison. 45,000 common prisoners before they had served their sentences. This equates to an annual average of 5,000 releases under the guise of “family cohabitation,” presented by the regime as an act of “presidential pardon,” which some analysts criticize as a perverse form of political proselytism and exalting the figure of dictators.
Dictatorship is the one that exerts the most violence
Téllez recalled that it is precisely the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship, from the institutions of the State, that exercises the most violence against Nicaraguans.
“The priests of the Diocese of Matagalpa are completely kidnapped or banished because the regime exercises violence and hatred against the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church,” he said.
She also denounces that the Ortega-Murillos exercise violence and hatred against public sector workers “who are fired without labor rights.”
“There are more than two thousand people fired between the judicial system, the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office, the Ministry of Family EconomyCommunity Cooperative and Associative (MEFCCA), there are churches without priests, religious activities that cannot be carried out, more than 1,600 organizations, including almost half of the evangelical associations that were eliminated this week, all business chambers and organizations of small, medium-large entrepreneurs; peasants, which were canceled,” said the extra-political as part of the state violence.
Related news: Murillo will release 1,500 prisoners in honor of July 19, but keeps opponents imprisoned
The historian analyzed that the crimes committed in Nicaragua are hate crimes “fueled by the hate speech of the Ortega Murillo regime and these crimes are committed under the protection of impunity.”
For the historian, the Ortega-Murillo dictators are destroying Nicaragua with their speeches that promote violence. “They are destroying Nicaragua and they are destroying Nicaraguan society. They want to dismantle Nicaraguan society, but they are destroying themselves. They are destroying themselves because no one is supporting this dictatorship that is consuming itself in purges and the Nicaraguan people are going to bury this dictatorship in the short term,” she said.
The State of Nicaragua is ignoring violence
For her part, the defender of women’s rights, María Teresa Blandón, points out that, with regard to gender violence or hate crimes, the State of Nicaragua not only promotes hate speech but is “a negligent State,” and worse still, “has tried to hide the problem of sexist violence.”
“The State is responsible because it does nothing to prevent it. It is responsible because it has no plans to protect victims. It is responsible because it has closed down women’s organizations that have been working with us and children’s organizations that have been working on preventing violence and promoting values that foster respect and cooperation,” said Blandón.
The feminist accused the dictatorial family’s media of taking advantage of acts of violence to sell their news.
“The media in Nicaragua is responsible, where the vast majority of the remaining media are owned by the Ortega-Murillo family, in such a way that they are also taking advantage of the suffering of the people, they are taking advantage of the suffering of women, they are taking advantage of terrible events such as that of the child who was recently murdered (in Catarina) to sell, they take advantage of the spectacle, of the cruelty,” he denounced.
