This Thursday the European Parliament approved a resolution calling for “the immediate release” of Nicaraguan bishop Rolando Álvarez, who he has been under house arrest for more than 40 daysand “of other victims of arbitrary detention.”
With 538 votes in favor, 16 against and 28 abstentions, the European Parliament urged the Nicaraguan government “to restore full respect for all human rights, including freedom of expression, religion and belief.”
In a statement, the European body denounces “the continuing deterioration of the situation and the escalation of the repression against the Catholic Church, opposition figures, civil society, human rights defenders, journalists, peasants, students and people from towns.” indigenous peoples,” as well as “arbitrary arrests solely for exercising their fundamental freedoms.”
According to the European Parliament, the country’s judicial system led by Daniel Ortega “lacks independence” and “is used as an instrument to criminalize the exercise of civil and political rights.”
Several MEPs have expressed their concern about the course that the Ortega government has taken, accused at the UN of having expanded the persecution to critical voices in recent months.
“There are no bad dictatorships and good dictatorships, they are all abominable. The former Sandinista rebel Daniel Ortega became a dictator himself, a grotesque caricature of the dictator Somoza, whom he helped to overthrow”, said Portuguese MEP Isabel Santos via twitter.
“The Ortega-Murillo regime never tires of harassing, torturing, exiling and imprisoning the opposition, human rights defenders, journalists, students and businessmen. Now he has raged against the Catholic faith, establishing a state policy of repression against it,” Venezuelan-born MEP Leopoldo López said in a speech on Wednesday.
Likewise, some of the members of the European Parliament insist on activating the democratic clause of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Central America, a tool that allows the bloc to demand respect for human rights from all its trading partners. In case of not fulfilling this condition, the government in question can be sanctioned or receive the annulment of the commercial agreement.
The Spanish deputy of Renew Europe, José Ramón Bauzá, already advanced to voice of america in December 2021 your desire to activate said clause.
Other conservative groups, such as the Popular Party, are also in favor of sanctioning Ortega in the same way.
On the other hand, members of parties such as the Socialist in the past warned the VOA that “the objective is to harm the government of Nicaragua, not its people,” since they consider that if the clause is finally activated, the population would be the most affected.
For its part, the government of Daniel Ortega has not commented on the new EU resolution. However, in a speech delivered to celebrate the country’s independence, Vice President Rosario Murillo stated that Nicaragua “does not want ‘foreign interference’.”
Nicaraguan bishop Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, critic of the Ortega-Murillo government he was arrested in mid-August. So far, the condition in which the religious is found has not been reported. At the international level, voices continue to increase calling for his release.
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