The new wave of repression unleashed by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo during the fourth anniversary of the April 2018 Rebellion, left a balance of 123 incidents linked to human rights violationsaccording to a report released by the Blue and White Monitoring.
The document indicates that in the week of April 17 to 24, in which the fourth year of social protests against the regime was commemorated,: harassment (96), threats (11), arrests (9), prosecution (8), territorial control (7), raids (4), deaths (3) and torture and cruel treatment (3).
The cases related to mistreatment, details the report, occurred against the political prisoners that the Ortega-Murillo regime maintains in the different prisons of the country.
In addition, it indicates that the nine people detained that week were released hours or days later, after harsh interrogations and threats; and the three registered deaths were: one due to femicide and two due to homicides allegedly linked to attacks by settlers in the North Caribbean of the country.
The multidisciplinary group reports that the repressive escalation occurred through “a wide deployment of police, parapolice and members of ruling party structures” and focused on members of social and political movements, territorial leaders, released political prisoners, and relatives of people killed in the context of the protests.
? We share with you the report of violations of our rights during the week of April 18 to 24, 2022.#SOSNicaragua #SOSLibertadYa #Freedom for political prisoners pic.twitter.com/c4NUmILo67
— Blue and White Monitoring (@AzulyMonitoreo) April 27, 2022
They prevent commemoration in honor of the victims of the repression
Carlos Pavón, father of young Richard Pavónone of the first killed during the 2018 protestshe denounced, in an interview with the program Tonightthat between April 18 and 20 the siege and harassment outside his home increased.
“On the 18th, 19th and 20th they did not let me go out and all the people who entered my house were searched. If they arrived in vehicles, they asked for their documents, they asked them what they were going to do to my property, they also asked them when they left, where they were going, what they were going to do, ”he said.
Pavón denounced that the persecution and siege suffered by him and his family are constant and increase on each anniversary of his son’s death. In addition, he considered that the objective of the police officers sent by the Ortega-Murillo regime is “to erase what happened from our memory and prevent us from commemorating another anniversary of the murder of my son.”
He claimed that on April 18, despite the police presence outside his home, he posted himself at the front door of his home with a photo of his son and reiterated his demand for justice.
“In their faces I began to say: ‘Justice for my son Richard Pavón. Justice for all those murdered.´ I yelled at them that what they do not let me do on the street I would do from home, because until God gives me life I will continue to demand justice for my son and for the more than 350 murdered, “he said. .
Homes of exiles besieged by police and paramilitaries
Ivania Álvarez, from the territorial support networks of the Blue and White Monitoring, explained, in an interview with the program Tonightwho in this new escalation of repression found that the siege also persists outside the homes of opponents, activists, released political prisoners and relatives of victims who are already in exile as a result of the persecution they suffered in Nicaragua.
“In Juigalpa, for example, the neighbors denounced that they were besieging the houses of people who went into exile, who fled and they (police) know it, but they return to using terror and fear besieging, taking private property, so that the rest are frightened”, he denounced.
He explained that other findings of this repressive wave, which began in this month of April, were the arrests and raids against artistsmusicians and producers, which in other years had not occurred, and cases of harassment of people related to the government party, which were denounced through social networks.
Álvarez points out that, although it is true that there is an increase in incidents in the week of commemoration of the April Rebellion, there is always a record of a constant siege and harassment against dissidents, opponents and victims of the regime and an underreporting of cases that are not they denounce, so he invited the population to approach the organizations to denounce and not normalize any violation of human rights.
