The People’s Republic of China, new political ally of the government of President Daniel Ortega, donated this week an unknown amount of supplies to equip the riot forces of the National Police, an institution on which the United States imposed sanctions for violating human rights.
The Beijing ambassador in Managua, Chen Xi, said after the delivery of the equipment that “Nicaragua is one of the safest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and the National Police has assumed a very competent and efficient responsibility in serving the people and has accumulated rich experiences.”
In command of the National Police is Francisco Díaz, President Ortega’s brother-in-law, and the entity is accused of repressing Nicaraguan dissidence and criticizing the president who has been in power for more than 15 years.
In 2018 the Police were accused of murdering more than 300 civilians who were protesting against Ortega. The US sanctioned the entity, as well as his boss, Francisco Díaz.
Gonzalo Carrión, director of the Nicaraguan Human Rights Collective Never Again, told the voice of america that cooperation with the entity “is to strengthen the repression against the people.” “The priority of the police is to persecute people who want to live in freedom,” he stressed.
Since Ortega came to power in Nicaragua in 2007, the president doubled the number of officers that make up the ranks of the National Police, according to official data published in the Statistical Yearbooks of the institution.
When Ortega assumed power in 2007, the members of the National Police were barely 9,290 people. Thirteen years later, in 2020, the figure has increased to 16,909 members.
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