The prospect of a new mandate for Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua “is terrifying in a country where human rights violations became increasingly common during his government” and “augurs a new and terrible cycle,” he warned. Amnesty International in a statement.
“Once again, the people in Nicaragua find themselves in a context where expressing criticism against their government puts them at serious risk,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, director for the Americas of Amnesty International.
In addition, he explained that in recent years they have witnessed “the development of the plot of a terror story in the country” in which “lethal repression, illegal detentions, mistreatment, harassment and criminalization against human rights defenders and journalists ”.
According to the agency, all these violations have been “endorsed by a judicial system and a National Assembly without independence, which only exist to put a seal on Daniel Ortega’s repressive agenda.”
Electoral process marked by violations
The statement from the international organization mentions that the elections held on Sunday, November 7, “were marked by arbitrary arrests of activists and p
They also warned that freedom of the press “was also in the government’s eye” and the independent media denounced “restriction
In its report on the electoral process, the Open Urns Citizen Observatory recorded at least 200 acts of violence in the Voting Centers (CV) of the different departments of the country, including the presence of vigilante forces in the vicinity of the voting centers, as well as intimidation and coercion of State workers to force their vote.
“We have processed until 4:30 pm incidents of political violence or anomalies from all the country’s departments and 78 percent of the municipalities, that is, 119 municipalities,” said Olga Valle, a researcher at Urnas Abiertas.
They will keep trying to silence criticism
Guevara Rosas affirmed that this new and consecutive mandate of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, as president and vice president, “predicts the perpetuation of the structures that have implemented the repressive strategy against critical voices and guaranteed impunity for crimes under international law.”
“In addition, this new period heralds the continuation of forced migration of those who are criminalized for speaking out,” he said.
In that sense, he demanded that the international community “must do more than support the brave Nicaraguan people who continue to fight for their human rights.”
“In the regular session of the OAS General Assembly, to be held this week, the member states must collectively assume, without delay, the joint responsibility of protecting the human rights of the people in Nicaragua and put pressure on the Ortega government as a first step towards this post-electoral context ”, he specified.
He also requested that “the multilateral forums should do everything possible to ensure that the structures of repression and impunity in Nicaragua cease to be untouchable.”
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