The Argentine justice opened on Wednesday, October 5, an investigation against the dictators of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, as well as against nine of their officials, to determine if their regime committed crimes against humanity, especially in social protests. of 2018.
According to information obtained by the Argentine media Infobae, the federal judge ariel ordered to send an exhortation or request to the Argentine justice to report if there are open cases investigating extrajudicial executions, illegal detentions, forced disappearance of people, or torture committed by Ortega.
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The case —according to the media— was opened based on the complaint filed by the lawyers Dario Richarte and Diego Pirotaagainst Ortega and Murillo and the officials who have been part of the repression against Nicaraguans.
Nine officials investigated
The list of Nicaraguan officials investigated for being executors and authors of state repression is headed by Ortega’s in-law and sanctioned director of the Police, Francisco diaz madriz, the head of the Nicaraguan Army, Julio Cesar Aviles CastilloOrtega’s private adviser, Nestor Moncada Lau.
Also included is the retired general Oscar MojicaMinister of Transport and Infrastructure, the sanctioned president of the National Assembly, Gustavo Eduardo Porras Cortes, the director of the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute, Robert Lopezaccused of collaborating in the 2018 repression.
Other of Ortega’s files, in the magnifying glass of Argentine justice are Oscar Valladarespresidential adviser on defense and security issues, the sanctioned and former health minister, Sonia Castroaccused of being responsible for giving the order not to treat opponents injured in social protests and for the massive dismissal of health workers.
Finally adds to the list Leonardo Ovid Reyes Ramirez, President of the Central Bank of Nicaragua, who “acts as a financing instrument for the Ortega-Murillo family and criminal operations,” says Infobae.
Federal justice of Argentina is empowered to investigate
As to whether or not Argentina is empowered to carry out investigations into other countries, the Argentine prosecutor Edward Taiano explained that the federal justice is empowered to investigate these crimes based on article 118 of the Constitution, which recognizes the principle of universal jurisdictionand the international commitments assumed by the country.
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“They establish the duty of domestic courts to investigate on behalf of the international community regardless of the place where they have arisen, according to the sixth paragraph of the preamble to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” he remarked.
It should be noted that the complaint was born after reports and investigations, among which those carried out by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Human Rights Council (UN), the Amnesty International Organization, the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS ), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), and the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts for Nicaragua.
In the judicial complaint to which he had access Infobae points out that “on May 28, 2021, another phase of the repressive strategy of the Sandinista regime began. Among the characteristic elements of this period, the arrest of a new group of people identified as opponents of the Government stands out”; It also points out the arbitrary arrest on August 19 against Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, Bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa.
So far, the Nicaraguan government has not responded to this action by the Argentine Justice, who joins the international condemnation of the Ortega and Murillo regime.
