This Friday night, an agent from the Directorate of Special Operations (DOEP) seized the facilities of the Center for Justice and Human Rights of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua (Cejudhcan), located in Bilwi, North Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, reported a source from that place to the Local Wave medium.
“We received the news that officers from the DOEP and the Chief of Police of Puerto Cabezas arrived at the Cejudhcan offices and notified the caregivers that no one has permission to enter or leave that office,” the source reported to the independent media.
Related note: Cenidh: Nicaraguan Regime “Leaves Indigenous Defenseless” by Outlawing Cejudhcan
This March 17, the regime of Daniel Ortega, through the steamroller of the National Assembly, canceled the legal status of 25 organizations, including Cejudhcan, an organization dedicated to defending and promoting the rights of indigenous peoples.
According to the Assembly, the cancellation of the legal status of these organizations is supposedly because they have not reported their boards of directors and their financial reports according to the fiscal periods and detailed breakdowns as established by law.
The Cejudhcan has been working in Nicaragua since 1997, as a non-governmental, non-profit, humanitarian association. Made up of indigenous professionals, dedicated to the promotion and defense of the collective and territorial rights of the indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples of Nicaragua.
It was led by territorial leader Lottie Cunningham, a prominent human rights defender in the Nicaraguan Caribbean. In 2018, Cunningham was part of the various civil society organizations that denounced the repression of the dictatorship before international organizations, especially the constant threats suffered by Caribbean communities due to the invasion of settlers and the massacres against indigenous peoples.
