Nicaragua will be left without legally established human rights organizations. The last one left standing – the Permanent Commission of Human Rights of Nicaragua –PCHR — will be canceled this week by the National Assembly dominated by the ruling party.
The entity was one of those that registered the serious complaints against the State in the anti-government protests of the year 2018, however some time later it began to be besieged by the National Police, in fact one of its lawyers, Mary Oviedo, He is in prison under the alleged crime of “conspiracy”.
The inevitable closure of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights is cataloged as “outrageous” by other experts on the matter, such as the Nicaraguan lawyer Yonarqui Martínez, who has worked on the release of political prisoners.
“The legislature is making a big mistake in taking away the legal status of this organization because it is the only one that has remained giving support to the victims, at the forefront of the defense of political prisoners,” Martínez stressed by telephone to the voice of americaand added that the consequences of the closure “will be quite disastrous because the population that went to the offices to request advice, to file complaints will be left defenseless.”
“This has a huge impact on Nicaragua, this has as a consequence more impunity, the criminalization of defenders has been enormous, but curtailing the right to defend rights to an organization is even more criminal, it is even more anomalous actions and unfortunately the power Legislative has the singing voice in this imminent violation of human rights, “explained Martínez.
Since 2018, the government has closed the rest of the organizations focused on the matter, such as the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) and the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (ANPDH), without leaving many alternatives for the population.
The same end will have a 24 more non-governmental organizations, Among these are some dedicated to carrying out work in favor of children and adolescents, such as Codeni, and others focused on promoting literature, such as the Luisa Mercado Foundation, chaired by the writer and former Nicaraguan vice president, Sergio Ramírez.
Same mechanisms for cancellations
The ruling party’s argument for this measure has been that the entities have allegedly failed to comply with the Laws that regulate Non-Profit Organizations, such as not showing financial statements, not reporting established boards of directors and not reporting donations from the Exterior.
Under the same excuse, a hundred other organizations have been eliminated, however, the majority deny the accusations and have indicated that the Ministry of the Interior (Migob) under which the entities are governed, does not receive the corresponding documentation in order to be closed. for being critical or carrying out work in defense of human rights.
“With this new action, what the regime is sending is a very clear message that it is focused on leaving no stone unturned by anyone who promotes human rights in Nicaragua, by anyone who protects them, a message is being sent to the people of Nicaragua, to the international community, which does not care about all the pressure measures that have been taken up to now”, he sentenced to the VOA Nicaraguan activist Haydeé Castillo, exiled in the United States since 2018.
Castillo indicates that this poses a challenge to all the organizations that fight for freedom in Nicaragua and to the rest of civil society. “In reality, it is urgent to form a single block, a key, clear strategy, to be able to face such a dismantling of the rule of law in Nicaragua,” concluded the opponent.
Nicaragua fulfilled this April 18 four years of sociopolitical crisis under a wave of arrests, raids and persecution of opponents of the government of President Daniel Ortega who has been in power for more than 15 consecutive years in Nicaragua under allegations of electoral fraud.
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