Pablo Cuevas, human rights defender, revealed that after the “calvary situation” that he had to live in Nicaragua due to Daniel Ortega’s repressive apparatus, he has made the decision to go into exile in the United States.
In interview for the digital medium 100% NewsCuevas alleged that “all last year (2021) I lived through a situation of ordeal, siege, harassment, threats, a series of very difficult situations resulting from the Nicaraguan authorities or fans of the ruling party.” For that reason, he decided to leave the country with his family.
«I never thought I would have to make this decision, it never even occurred to me to go look for an American visa like many people do. I didn’t like leaving the country, not even on a business trip, I liked working inside the country », he added.
Related news: Pablo Cuevas goes into exile due to death threats and an arrest warrant against him
The former official of the Permanent Commission of Human Rights (CPDH), previously, denounced the team of Article 66 that the first March of this 2022, he received a notice that he was going to be arrestedso on the 8th of the same month he decided to leave Nicaragua with his family.
Pablo Cuevas pointed out that thanks to the support of his friends he managed to cross Central America and Mexico, where in Aztec territory he crossed the dangerous Rio Grande that delimits the border with the United States. He would then turn himself in to US Immigration authorities.
“We went out clandestinely. I don’t have money, but I do have many friends and many friends helped me. There are people who put themselves at risk for me, because surely if they had caught me with them, they would have been in trouble just like me, “she stressed.
“Thank God everything went well for us. We are already in North American territory where I have family, who have been asking me for a long time, begging me, to protect me and keep me safe, “he added to 100% Noticias.
In addition, he explained that he is trying “to start other projects to continue with my life and do what I like, which is to defend human rights.”
Illegalization of CPDH is “intransigent”
Pablo Cuevas described as “intransigent” the cancellation of the legal status of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH), by the Sandinista steamroller. The organization has been defending the human rights of Nicaraguans for 45 years.
On April 20, the National Assembly with 74 votes in favor, zero against, 15 abstentions and one present outlawed 25 non-profit organizations, including the CPDH.
The CPDH, where Cuevas worked, was one of the organizations that most collected and accompanied the victims of the repression in Nicaragua. The entity was in charge of evidencing and denouncing all the abuses of the Ortega dictatorship against citizens who exercised their right to protest.
“We are receiving this news in exile, (…) listening with surprise to what happened with CPDH. It is incredible because we cannot talk about the organization without talking about the first institution that worked on the issue of human rights and that even defended those who today are its executioners in the 70s, “lamented the lawyer.
«I saw the bestiality with which the regime acted in 2018. I saw people injured, beaten. I remember that in the development of the work we met the staff of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh). We live under a genocidal regime that has a disregard for the lives of citizens,” he said.
The CPDH is “an effort as intense, as pioneering, as important as this, it went away at a stroke due to the intransigence of those who see human rights defenders as enemies,” Cuevas remarked.
The lawyer argued that Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo “are genocidal, it is a genocidal government, they have done things as terrible as this. I know people who are very hurt by what is happening, there are those who saw in CPDH a support, a friend who defended them at work ».
