The Nicaraguan government has dismantled the latest remaining controls and balances and “systematically executes a strategy to cement the total control of the country through serious human rights violations,” warned a panel of United Nations experts on Wednesday.
He report Of the human rights experts is the most recent and forceful criticism of the government of President Daniel Ortega and the first lady and now co -president, Rosario Murillo, who for years has repressed the dissent and civil society.
The measures began with the violent government repression of the 2018 protests. Since then, the Nicaraguan government “has deliberately transformed the country into an authoritarian state,” experts said. Repression has forced tens of thousands of people to flee from the country in search of asylum.
“The state and the ruler Sandinista party have merged into a unified machinery of repression with a national and transnational impact,” said Jan Simon, president of the UN Expert Group.
“Ortega and Murillo operate a wide intelligence machinery with which they monitor the population and select the objectives of the violation of rights, acting as ‘the eyes and ears’ that allow (to the Nicaraguan government) to obtain and maintain total control over people.”
The Nicaraguan government did not respond to a request for comments.
The experts pointed out that the final blow to democracy took place last month with a constitutional reform approved by the Nicaraguan Congress, which is firmly controlled by the Sandinista Party of Ortega and Murillo.
The reform, which entered into force on February 18, put all the branches of the Government under the power of the presidency, and also officially turned Ortega and Murillo into “co -presidents”, which would guarantee the presidential succession for Murillo and his family.
The reform also extended the presidential mandate of five to six years, in a movement that further consolidated the firm control of the family about power.
The UN Report indicated that, in addition to government control, Ortega and Murillo have expanded their use of arbitrary detentions, forced expulsions, confiscation of private property and dispossession of Nicaraguan citizenship to their opponents.
The experts compiled a list of people who believed responsible for repression, which will be shared with the Nicaraguan government and made public through the UN Human Rights Council.
They also urged the international community to take legal actions and expand the sanctions directed against these individuals, in addition to providing greater protections for Nicaraguan exiles.
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