The 46/2 Collective, which brings together 21 national and international human rights organizations, requested this week the creation of the Mechanism for Nicaragua, led by the United Nations Organization (UN), to investigate the serious human rights violations that occurred in Nicaragua. the country since 2018, due to Daniel Ortega’s failure to comply with the recommendations made by the UN.
“A mechanism with this legitimacy, with resources, with the possibility of carrying out these independent investigations, I think would have a lot of credibility to speak to other actors (banks, multilateral mechanisms, States) regarding the recurring attitude of the Nicaraguan State,” he explains in an interview with Tonight, the former attorney general of Guatemala, Claudia Paz y Paz, director for Central America and Mexico of the Center for Justice and International Law (Cejil), which is part of the 46/2 Collective.
Likewise, it indicates that these investigations would promote “resolutions as important as those of the Inter-American Court, that in the present, but it would also preserve evidence so that in the future these serious crimes can be investigated and punished.”
The petition comes before the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) examines the situation in Nicaragua next March and after the Ortega government intensified the repression, persecution and criminalized opponents by subjecting them to trials riddled with annulments and irregularities.
“If we analyze the situation in Nicaragua, today, February 23, 2022, the State has systematically failed to comply with these recommendations; That is why, from this group, we have given ourselves the task of monitoring compliance by the State of Nicaragua with these different resolutions of the Council and making an evaluation,” says Paz y Paz.
State must investigate death of Hugo Torres
The specialist in criminal and academic law lamented that the Ortega regime unjustly keeps more than 170 people in prison. In addition, she points out that the actions recently committed by the State, by cancel more than 80 legal entitiesare an expression of authoritarianism and a very severe limitation to the exercise of freedom of association, assembly, demonstration and expression.
“Not only did he not comply with the recommendations found in these (UN) resolutions, but he also increased the repression (…) He is really condemning himself for acts of freedom of expression: for a tweet, for a retweet and this situation , especially from a humanitarian perspective, is extremely precarious because (the political prisoners) have hardly had adequate access to food and have not had access to adequate medical care, “he explains.
Regarding the death of the retired general, Hugo Torres, who was Ortega’s political prisoner during the last eight months of his life, stressed that the State of Nicaragua is responsible and therefore should be investigated.
“Because he is in the custody of the State, it is a fact that is his responsibility and it has to be investigated under what conditions that death occurred, if he had access to the necessary medical care, if his physical conditions were taken care of for the regimen to which he was subjected to deprivation. of liberty, taking into account that the Court had already ruled that it is an arbitrary deprivation of liberty,” he says.
The defender also explained that it is urgent to verify on-site of the situation of those deprived of liberty to check how their health is. “This is a basic humanitarian aspect, but it is also urgent because it is the lives of these people that are at stake and because they are in custody, precisely the State of Nicaragua is absolutely responsible for their well-being.”
There is no clean slate
During the inaugural ceremony Ortega, on January 11, mentioned the phrase “clean slate”; However, in the opinion of Paz y Paz, this does not apply to human rights violations and crimes against humanity that have been committed since 2018.
“Regarding these crimes against humanity, the phrase clean slate does not apply, much less if the person who pronounced it is the person who was in command of the security forces, which must be investigated, with many of these crimes, of these executions. that occurred as of April 2018, then it is a declaration that is not valid in the international arena and when democracy is restored in Nicaragua it will not be valid either, nor can it be argued,” he emphasizes.
Paz y Paz was one of the four foreigners who made up the Interdisciplinary Group of International Experts (GIEI), who analyzed the first months of state repression in 2018, and determined that the Ortega and Murillo regime committed crimes against humanity.
The expert emphasizes that the situation of human rights violations in Nicaragua is a matter of international interest because there is clear evidence that the national system is failing and because it is the Government that is doing violence.
“The situation in Nicaragua is extremely serious in the region, it is the worst record of human rights, the worst record of democracy and the rule of law,” he says.
The only attitude of the international mechanisms for the protection of rights, he adds, is continuous vigilance and the activation of tools that can require the State to minimally comply with basic human rights. Therefore, he believes that the votes and political will exist for the UN Council to approve the creation of the Mechanism for Nicaragua.
“I think that awareness is growing among the States, that the State of Nicaragua is not doing the minimum to comply with the previous resolutions, so I think so, that the States are increasingly aware of the need to take a step forward. . Let’s hope so, ”she states.
