Reports from local and international organizations warn that “repression and control” has been established in Nicaragua as a public policy that each time “acquires a high level of refinement and sophistication.”
An expert on security issues, on condition of anonymity, explained that the perception of citizen security has changed in recent years, mainly since 2018, when there were social protests that were repressed by the Police and Ortega paramilitaries.
52.4% of the Nicaraguan population considered that crime and delinquency have increased, the data is part of the results of the survey “Citizen Security in Nicaragua: Trends and Challenges in 2021”, prepared by Expediente Abierto and the University from Arizona. The report indicates that one in three Nicaraguans perceives the deterioration of security in their immediate environment.
Related news: Nicaragua, the second country with the highest rate of robberies in Latin America
The population’s perception of citizen security has changed in recent years in the sense that people feel greater insecurity and fear, says the expert on these issues.
«In the latest opinion polls that have been carried out, this issue appears as one of the most important problems of the population, behind the economic situation and unemployment. The socio-political crisis has a direct relationship with that perception”, he stated.
crime and delinquency
As a result of state repression and the massive release of common prisoners, delinquency and criminality have increased, that is, it is not only a question of perception but that in real terms there is more insecurity and criminality, he explains.
“What has happened is that robberies, assaults and other common crimes have increased. There are also certain groups such as women who are experiencing situations of higher violence as in the case of femicides; indigenous communities attacked by settlers on the Caribbean Coast, to mention a few examples. That without counting the political violence that has remained a constant during these years », he highlights.
The Cid Gallup poll from January of this year reveals that 62% of the people surveyed believe that Daniel Ortega is leading the country in the wrong direction and citizen insecurity is among the four main problems faced by Nicaraguans. The other three are unemployment, corruption and high cost of living.
The imposition of a police state
The expert on these issues said that the imposition of a police state does not help to reduce the perception of insecurity. During 2021, the Police received 140,713 complaints of all kinds of crimes, of which they managed to resolve 120,759. That is, there were 19,954 unresolved complaints. In addition, in all of 2021, according to official data, 270 homicides were registered.
Since 2018, the Ortega y Murillo regime has imposed a police state in the country in order to crush the freedom of demonstration of citizens, a situation that has been criticized by international and local human rights organizations. Police officers are on the streets to exercise a surveillance function on opponents.
«Numerous studies have shown that more police officers on the streets are not synonymous with greater security; less in the case of countries like Nicaragua, where the Police has become one of the institutions that generates the greatest fear among the population due to the political violence it exercises. But also because other institutions are part of a population surveillance system,” the expert analyzed.
Second country with more robberies
The July 2022 survey by the international consulting firm CID Gallup ranks Nicaragua as the second country in Latin America with the highest rate of robberies and assaults, surpassing Mexico, Venezuela and El Salvador, which previously reflected the highest rates of insecurity in the region.
At that time, the retired major Roberto Samcam pointed out that in the country you cannot have security with “a Police that is sanctioned by the United States and the reasons for which it was sanctioned is not pleasant because they practically compare it with terrorist groups and The orginazed crime. Obviously, the least thing in Nicaragua is citizen security.”
According to the report, in Nicaragua, at least 19 people are victims of serious crimes daily such as robberies with violence or robberies with intimidation. This does not include other types of crimes considered less serious such as theft, robbery with force, fraud or extortion. At least 3,154 people reported being victims of robbery with violence in Nicaragua and another 3,741 said they had suffered a robbery with intimidation.
«During the Ortega government, the idea that the Police was one of the best in Latin America has been sold and that, even, many official spokesmen sold that idea of the “retaining wall” and “citizen respect”, which fell apart. during the social crisis in 2018,” Samcam said.
authoritarian regime
The British magazine The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), in the report February of this year, positions Nicaragua as a dictatorial regime and ranks it 143rd worldwide in terms of the democracy index.
The Frontline Democracy and the Battle for Ukraine study by the British firm, which evaluated the political conditions of 167 countries, placed Nicaragua within the classification of authoritarian regimes with a score of 2.50 out of 10 possible.
In 2022, the Archdiocese of Managua issued a press release, in the midst of the persecution unleashed by the Ortega Murillo dictatorship, in which it stated that the sociopolitical crisis in Nicaragua has “stalled our society in an environment of insecurity, polarization, and intransigence, unleashing a dynamic of division and antagonism that prevents overcoming this critical national situation.
