The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, urged Nicaraguan deputies this Friday, November 22, to reject the constitutional reforms ordered by dictator Daniel Ortega because “they could further threaten the rule of law and aggravate the human rights crisis in the country.
Although the call would have arrived late because the legislators already approved the constitutional reforms this same day and without any type of discussion, the UN high commissioner warns that “if adopted, these changes will mark the end of fundamental freedoms and the State of Law in Nicaragua, further eroding the already fragile remaining counterweights to the Executive Branch.
“I strongly call on legislators to completely reject the proposed amendments, and I call on the Government to also abandon the presentation of these extremely worrying proposals,” says Türk in a release published on the official website of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Likewise, the UN High Commissioner declares himself concerned because the reform approved by the Sandinista deputies and their stilt collaborators eliminates “the explicit prohibition of torture in the Constitution.”
Related news: National Assembly approves reform that gives total power to Ortega and Murillo
“Torture, in any context, is illegal, and taking this retrograde step to eliminate existing legal protection against it is deeply alarming,” the official says.
Likewise, he expresses concern that the new constitution also expands the powers of dictators to “strip people of their citizenship,” something they already use widely “as a means of arbitrary repression against government critics and dissidents.”
In this sense, the UN Human Rights body recalls that, since February 2023, to date, at least 546 Nicaraguans have been formally stripped of their nationality, leaving many of them stateless and even stripped of their rights. their assets, including property, bank accounts and pensions.
The dictators Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo sent to the National Assembly for approval, on November 19, an initiative of Law of reforms to the Political Constitution of Nicaragua, amending 130 articles and repealing 38, of the 202 that the Magna Carta has. which will be in force until January of next year, when the legislators at the service of the regime approve, in the second legislature, the changes that will put into effect a new Supreme Law that refounds a new state, tailored to the dictatorial marriage and guarantees dynastic succession.
The constitutional amendments, among other things, seek to grant the now two-headed “Presidency”, made up of two “co-presidents”, meaning Ortega and Murillo, powers to “coordinate” the Legislative, Judicial and Electoral “organs”, thus definitively disappearing at the constitutional level the separation of powers, which in practice had already disappeared.
It further restricts the exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, both in public and private contexts “based on vague arguments of “well-being”,” criticizes the OHCHR statement.
Likewise, the constitutional changes ordered by the tyrannical marriage completely eliminate all reference to the existence, even in the role of political pluralism.
“The proposal to eliminate the Constitution’s commitment to political pluralism is a deeply alarming signal ahead of the 2026 general elections,” said the High Commissioner.
It should be noted that, if the constitutional reforms are implemented immediately in January, once they are approved in the second legislature, there will no longer be elections in 2026 until 2027, as the presidential term is amended, going from five to six years.
The United States also rejects reforms
The United States Government had also previously spoken out against the reforms to the Constitution promoted by Ortega and Murillo and described them as a “maneuver” by the regime to give more power to the current vice president, using the “corrupt National Assembly.”
“We condemn the maneuvers of the corrupt National Assembly of Nicaragua to change, without review or debate, the Constitution in order to consolidate more power in the hands of Ortega and Murillo,” said State Department Undersecretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols
The US diplomatic official warned that the Ortega-Murillo regime, after the reforms to the Magna Carta, will use that power to “oppress Nicaraguans and further isolate Nicaragua from the international community.”
