Former heads of state and government of Latin America, grouped in the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA), denounced the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo for committing “crimes against humanity” against Nicaraguan opponents, subjecting them to “treatment cruel, inhuman and degrading”.
The former presidents state that “it is evident that the human rights violations that occur under the aforementioned and primitive Nicaraguan dictatorship have acquired a systematic and generalized character, and since they are persecution of groups and sectors for political reasons, they constitute true crimes against humanity.”
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The letter highlights the words of the former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Arturo McFields, giving an account of the “behaviors of the prevailing repressive dictatorship in his country. It refers to the situation of 177 political prisoners and more than 350 Nicaraguans who have lost their lives since 2018 when confronting the Ortega-Murillo ruling couple.
They ask the regime to release “immediately the political prisoners of Nicaragua.” They denounce that those imprisoned have been “condemned by justice at the service of said regime”, highlighting the case of the general manager of the newspaper La Prensa, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, as well as the directors of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation (FVBCH), Cristiana Chamorro, presidential candidate, and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro.
They also highlight the other trials against student leaders such as Lesther Alemán and Max Jerez, businessmen such as José Adán Aguerri, the former president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise and the former presidential candidate, Juan Sebastián Chamorro; former minister Dora María Téllez, former first lady María Fernanda Flores de Alemán, journalist Miguel Mora, former foreign minister Francisco Aguirre Sacasa, former deputy foreign ministers José Bernard Pallais and Víctor Hugo Tinoco, former ambassador and former presidential candidate Arturo Cruz, political scientist and former presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga, the social leaders Violeta Granera, Ana Margarita Vijil and Tamara Dávila, among others and including peasant leaders.
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Likewise, they emphasize the death in prison, awaiting trial for treason and in unexplained circumstances, of former Sandinista guerrilla fighter Hugo Torres Jiménez, better known as Comandante Uno.
Among the subscribers of the letter are the former president of Costa Rica Óscar Arias, the former prime minister of Spain José María Aznar, the former president of Mexico Felipe Calderón, the former president of El Salvador Alfredo Félix Cristiani and Mauricio Macri, former president of Argentina.
