It surprises few that Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo try to deceive about what is happening in Nicaragua, what is scary is that even though no one believes them, they insist on the same discourse. “We continue working for peace, stability, the common good, justice, constitutional and social order, and the human rights of all” in Nicaragua, they say.
These comments are found in the official document of responses to the abundant recommendations of the countries that evaluated Nicaragua in 2019. These are empty words when you see the reality in the country: a nation without basic freedoms, without political life, without democracy , where human rights are violated and where the laws are below what a septuagenarian couple that has already been in power for 17 years says. And the international community knows it.
Under the façade of a supposed progress that no one sees, the Ortega-Murillo regime maintains that the “constructive recommendations” of the 2019 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) allowed them to “improve respect for and restitution of human rights.” They believe that the world does not know that they are the rulers of a country that lacks true political opposition because it arrested them, banished them, and stole their property as punishment.
Daniel Ortega’s regime continues to fail to guarantee justice for the 355 opponents murdered during the 2018 civic rebellion, as a result of an order that he and his wife gave to police and parapolice to crush the demonstrations. For six years, anyone who raises their voice in Nicaragua has paid with prison, exile, and the loss of their nationality.
The regime also attempts to “paint” an image of progress in protecting the rights of LGBTI people. In its response to the human rights examination, it assures that discrimination based on “sexual choice” is sanctioned and that there are specialized protocols to guarantee the rights of this group in the National Penitentiary System.
Related news: UNAB: Ortega-Murillo Dictatorship is in a phase of internal decomposition
But, once again, words and reality seem to belong to parallel universes. «What sanctions have been given for discrimination? “What processes have been implemented to punish these crimes?” asks lawyer Salvador Marenco, human rights defender.
The opposition united in the Blue and White National Unity (UNAB) affirms that the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo is in evident internal decomposition, so it will be impossible for them to leave a dynastic succession that would apparently fall to Laureano Ortega, since the regime placed him in key positions and has linked him to the highest levels of power within the State.
“Such decomposition is manifested in the systematic and widespread process of purging at all levels, in the public administration, in the National Police, in the Nicaraguan Army, in public universities and within the militancy of the Sandinista National Liberation Front” says the UNAB message on social networks.
For the opposition organization, another aspect that reveals the internal decomposition of the dictatorship is the shortlist presented to the Central American Integration System SICA, in which they propose Sonia Castro, María Coronel Kinloch and Arling Alonso, all of them accused of committing crimes of against humanity and condemned with sanctions by the international community.
“This shortlist not only demonstrates the decrepitude of the dictatorship in its terminal phase, but also the lack of loyalty, and of changes in the regime itself, they only depend on discredited and criminal officials,” says Juan Diego Barberena of the Political Council of the UNAB.
