The human rights situation in Nicaragua worsened in 2022, according to the most recent annual report of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh). The organism explains that during the past year the repression increased and a “Permanent State of Terror”.
The document entitled “Nicaragua: Terror prevails, resistance persists” indicates that the country “was plunged into an atmosphere of uncertainty and hopelessness” that was reinforced by the electoral farces of 2021 and 2022.
“The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo it deepened the repression and continued violating the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of Nicaraguans, with the purpose of closing all democratic spaces, sowing terror and continuing to perpetuate itself in power”, the report highlights.
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The document addresses the prison situation of political prisoners, the torture they receive in prison; the “disastrous control” of the regime over the justice system and the other powers of the State turned into “instruments to repress”; violations of freedom of the press; the attacks against the Church and the “destruction of the social fabric”.
The cenidh concludes that the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo remains in power «at the cost of numerous repressive strategies… even when the will of the vast majority of Nicaraguans is their departure and accountability for the crimes committed.
Prisoners and political trials
Over the political prisoners The agency highlighted that in 2022 they were treated as “non-persons”, by denying them the most basic rights such as access to water, food and health “with the clear objective of destroying them physically and mentally along with their families.” “The regime has been merciless against them, violating all their human rights,” he denounced.
«Detention conditions in Nicaragua continue to be incompatible with international human rights standards, both common criminals and political prisoners remain in subhuman conditions. The latter (the prisoners of conscience) also suffer cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment and torture that have been documented and verified by their relatives, during the few visits to the prisons at the national level, “he added.
The agency values that last year “it was the continuity of torture” against political persons and that these actions extended to their relatives, with surveillance actions in homes, police persecution. Also, that prisoners under house arrest are not allowed to receive the medical attention they need to improve their living conditions.
In the case of the Judiciary, Cenidh considers that this was “the greatest instrument of repression” of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship because it was used to imprison and prosecute opponents. The agency pointed out that the political trials are the most aberrational action and violation of human rights, registered in the most recent history of Nicaragua.
«We closed the year with an absolutely negative balance, in terms of the validity and respect of human rights… more than ever we need the firm and determined support of international human rights systems and organizations and the duty of protection of the democratic states of the world,” concluded Cenidh.
