At least 158 people detained in Nicaragua since the social protests of 2018 suffered torture and 113 of them were victims of sexual violence by prison officers and high-ranking police officers, revealed an investigation released on Friday by the “Nicaragua Nunca Más” Human Rights Collective.
The document, presented in Costa Rica by Juan Carlos Arce, a lawyer for that organization based in San José, was made from the compilation of testimonies of victims and relatives of detainees by the government of Daniel Ortega over two years. It also includes photographs, videos, public complaints and court records.
“This report is possibly the largest systematization on torture made in the history of Nicaragua,” Arce said in an interview with Associated Press.
According to the investigation, of the 158 victims of torture, 153 participated in the 2018 protests and 123 were threatened, besieged or harassed before their arrest. There are 130 men -including two minors- and 28 women from 14 of the 16 departments of the country.
The report documents 40 types of torture, among which stands out the sexual violence that was perpetrated against 113 of the 158 detainees included in the investigation. Seven of the 28 women were victims of rape and the rest of other types of abuse. In the case of men, the document recorded two cases of rape and 88 sexual abuse.
According to the text, other methods of torture applied to the prisoners were extreme and inhuman detention conditions, beatings, death threats, temporary forced disappearance, burns, electric shocks, hanging, simulated execution or murder, and nail detachment.
The application of torture in Nicaragua was also documented by the United Nations Group of Experts (GHREN), which in a report released in March denounced the Ortega government for “crimes against humanity.”
“These violations and abuses are perpetrated in a widespread and systematic way for political reasons and constitute crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment, torture, including sexual violence, deportation and politically motivated persecution,” said independent expert Jan Simon when presenting the report. GHREN report in Geneva.
The report presented by Arce also identified a pattern of extrajudicial executions carried out by members of the National Police and pro-government parapolice forces, who acted “in a coordinated manner” to repress and capture civilian protesters.
The Ortega government rejects all the complaints and ensures that the 2018 rebellion was a “failed coup” financed by the United States and European countries.
Among other forms of torture applied that left serious consequences on health, deprivation of sleep and sun, decreased water and food intake, deprivation of contact with relatives, and denial of medical care are also mentioned.
Nicaragua has been experiencing a serious political and social crisis since the 2018 revolt against the Ortega government, which was put down by police and paramilitaries and left a toll of 355 dead, more than 2,000 injured, 1,600 detained between 2018 and 2021, and more than 100,000 exiles. according to human rights organizations.
Arce stressed that the report also includes those responsible for torture since it reveals “158 names of perpetrators, including high-ranking officers of the police and the prison system.”
“The report makes it clear that we are facing a State that practices torture in a systematic and widespread manner, since not a single place in Nicaragua was left without victims,” said the lawyer, who, like most Nicaraguan human rights defenders, was forced into exile in Costa Rica.
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