Organizations denounce the Nicaraguan Justice for promoting “impunity”

Civil society organizations from Nicaragua and abroad exposed this Monday at a public hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) the situation of impunity that exists in Managua under the government of Daniel Ortega.

The commissioner of the IACHR, Margarette May Macaulay, said that the objective of said hearing —in which representatives of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, Open Ballot Boxes, the International Federation for Human Rights, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Race and Equality Institute participated— is to counteract the impunity that exists in Managua.

Andrés Sánchez, deputy regional representative for Central America of the OHCHR, recalled that “international law has mechanisms and tools to ensure that justice, sooner or later, prevails” in Nicaragua.

“The purpose of the regime has always been the same”

The lawyer and director of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), Vilma Núñez de Escorcia, commented in her speech on the destruction of the institutional framework in Nicaragua and stressed that it dates back to 2007, when President Daniel Ortega took office power, until 2018, when it worsened even more with the outbreak of protests that left more than 300 dead.

“The purpose of the regime has always been the same, to perpetuate itself in power,” said the human rights defense attorney who operates clandestinely from Managua.

Similarly, he stressed that the “express kidnappings, torture in clandestine prisons, as well as human rights violations” that occurred in the context of the demonstrations have gone unpunished.

He recalled that in 2018, several relatives of young people who died in the protests that year were forced to sign a document desisting from requesting an investigation into the events in exchange for the bodies being handed over to them.

He also pointed out that “arbitrary” arrests continued in Nicaragua in 2021 against more than 40 opponents, including seven presidential candidates who are “subjected to mistreatment and acts of torture.”

“Since February [han sido] At least 41 people have been found guilty with sentences of between seven and 15 years in prison. The prisons have been filled and we do not live in a State of Law, but under a de facto state of exception”, lamented Núñez.

Finally, he said that human rights organizations like the one he directs face “an obsessive regime that sees us as the enemy.”

Natalia Yaya, from the International Federation for Human Rights, commented that impunity has been maintained in Nicaragua thanks to laws approved by the ruling majority Assembly, such as the Amnesty Law that exempted those responsible for causing deaths in the year from blame. 2018.

In the same way, he warned of an apparatus that has been created to persecute organizations that criticize impunity and has sought ways to reduce their spaces, such as the Foreign Agents Law, the Law for the Defense of the Rights of the People and the Cybercrime Law.

“Three regulations were approved that violate human rights and that have been subject to analysis,” Yaya said, mentioning that the government has used these laws to cancel some 103 NGOs, within these are some 13 universities and 5 organizations. women’s rights defenders who have been expropriated.

Violeta Delgado, from the Autonomous Women’s Movement, mentioned during her speech that the administration of justice has been key to the consolidation of impunity and warned that persecution for political reasons could well constitute a crime against humanity.

At the same time, he recalled that a total of 22 detainees have precautionary measures from the IACHR, however, he said that the State has not complied with any of the provisions and contrary to this, human rights violations continue.

“Visits to relatives continue to be denied, failing to comply with international standards, the lack of access to medication or health treatment continues,” said Delgado. In his speech, he mentioned the death of former guerrilla fighter Hugo Torres while he was in state custody.

They warn possible “new electoral fraud”

Ligia Gómez, a representative of the Urnas Abiertas organization that closely followed the presidential elections in Nicaragua in 2021, also participated in the session and emphasized that the recent elections “perpetuate the situation of impunity” in Managua.

“The regime, in its eagerness to establish itself, used different mechanisms. It was demonstrated in 2021 with the co-optation of all institutions and the Supreme Electoral Council, as part of the repressive strategy, eliminated all electoral competition, consequently, a repressive system was consolidated by illegally extending the regime’s mandate.”

Gómez said that there were also abuses of State resources in official propaganda in a clear violation of the Electoral Law, therefore in his opinion “the new presidential term of Ortega does not represent the popular will.”

“It is an illegitimate state,” he stressed.

In the same way, he warned about the municipal elections that will take place this year and said that it was possible that the mechanisms of the past elections would be repeated.

For this reason, María Luisa Gómez, of Race and Equality, said that she urged that the international community pay attention to intensify its efforts for the “serious violations of the regime.”

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