This Monday, March 13, the former presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga denounced, in a meeting with the European delegations accredited to the UN, that the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has “gradually dismantled all civil and political rights” of Nicaraguans.
“Since the protests in Nicaragua began on April 18, Ortega and his wife have gradually dismantled all civil and political rights. For example, between June and December 2018, the Ortega regime invalidated the legal status of nine civil society organizations, including IEEPP, a think tank that was under my direction at the time. So far, 3,144 non-profit organizations, including human rights organizations, charity groups and educational institutions, have also been declared illegal,” Maradiaga noted.
“Thousands of human rights defenders, NGO workers, activists, journalists, student leaders, religious figures and artists, as well as the main national and territorial leaders of the political opposition, have been forced to leave the country,” highlighted the now released prisoner. politician, who was exiled from his country and stripped of his Nicaraguan nationality.
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He added that “today, virtually all of the opposition, as well as all of the independent media and human rights organizations, have been forced to operate from abroad.”
During the meeting with the European delegations, Félix Maradiaga also recalled the exile that he lived with 221 other political prisoners, who were sent on a plane to the United States on February 9. In addition, he denounced the arbitrary stripping of the Nicaraguan nationality of 94 other people, “including my wife Berta Valle.”
“My wife, along with Victoria, Juan Sebastián’s wife, was a tireless defender of the release of all political prisoners,” he stressed.
Likewise, the opponent pointed out that despite the willingness of the United States “to welcome the families of those who were abruptly expelled, the Ortega regime is not allowing many of the relatives to obtain passports, effectively turning them into potential hostages.” .
He stressed that there are still 37 political prisoners locked up in the regime’s torture prisons, including “Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, a dear friend of mine and bishop of my own diocese (…). The arbitrary detention of Monsignor Álvarez is one more example of religious persecution in Nicaragua.”
“Other repressive acts against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua have been the expulsion of the Nuncio, the arrest of more than 12 members of the church, including seven priests. (…) In addition, the National Police has prohibited parishioners from receiving the Eucharist inside the temple and does not allow public religious celebrations. Yesterday, the regime broke diplomatic relations with the Vatican,” he detailed.
Opposition leaders and those declared stateless by the regime, Juan Sebastián Chamorro and Medardo Mairena, as well as the released political prisoners Yaritza Mairena and Solange Centeno, also participated in the meeting with the European delegations, who denounced the countless human rights violations perpetrated by the Ortega dictatorship against the people of Nicaragua.
The Nicaraguan delegation will remain until March 18 in Geneva, Switzerland; with the objective of meeting with “human rights organizations and official missions” to “advocate for the extension of the mandate of the Group of Experts on Human Rights on Nicaragua, promote new diplomatic measures against the Ortega regime and pressure for the release of the 37 political prisoners” who languish in the prisons of the dictatorship.
