The president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Ricardo Pérez Manrique, said this Wednesday before the OAS Permanent Council that Nicaragua is in “permanent contempt” of the court’s resolutions.
“Nicaragua, despite the measures adopted by the Court (…) has not adopted any decision in line with what the Court has resolved,” the magistrate declared at a session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), in Washington.
He added that the government of Daniel Ortega persists in “permanent contempt,” since it has not complied with any of the eight resolutions that the Court issued in the last two years.
Related news: Támara Dávila before the OAS: “Nicaragua is still under terror”
Pérez Manrique dismissed Managua’s argument that the detainees were “on trial for committing crimes.”
“In international law, domestic law cannot be invoked to breach an international decision (of a court), “said the Uruguayan magistrate.
“When the (inter-American) court finds a State in permanent contempt, as is the present case, the court completes its intervention and the path determined by the Inter-American Convention (on Human Rights) is to notify the OAS agencies,” added.
The Permanent Council limited itself to taking note of what was expressed by the president of the Court, which is based in San José, but did not adopt any agreement in this regard.
The Court had declared Nicaragua in “permanent contempt” in November and this Wednesday presented the respective report to the Permanent Council.
At the meeting, the Nicaraguan activist Tamara Dávila, released on February 9 in a group of 222 imprisoned opponents who were expelled from the country and stripped of their nationality, presented her testimony.
Dávila indicated that there are still “37 political prisoners” in Nicaragua.
She said that she had been detained since June 2021 in a “sealed cell with no more contact than that of my jailers” and was placed in solitary confinement like other prisoners, such as the former Sandinista guerrilla Dora María Téllez.
“The (Inter-American) Court ordered our release in 2021 and this order was disregarded. The contempt continues because expatriation, exile and exile is not freedom, ”added Dávila, who was able to speak in this session because the representative of Chile gave him his place.
Nicaragua has not participated in the OAS since it announced its “resignation and withdrawal” from the organization on November 18, 2021. The separation will be official two years after notification.
Managua has ignored the declarations and resolutions of the OAS and maintains that the organization, and especially its Secretary General, Luis Almagro, follow the dictates of the United States.
In April 2022, Nicaragua closed the OAS office in Managua and expelled its representatives.
