The Nicaraguan Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) suspended some 25 lawyers critical of the policies of the government of Daniel Ortega from the practice of the profession “permanently” on Thursday, among them political prisoners and activists who had already been canceled nationality in February of this year.
The measure disclosed in hours of Thursday night indicated that “the titles of these lawyers are annulled as of this resolution (…) these people cannot hold the title or practice the profession because they lost the right.”
The official text stated that the decision was made “in accordance with the legal system of Nicaragua, with the purpose of guaranteeing social peace, legal security and the self-determination of the State of Nicaragua.”
“The defendants are considered traitors to the country,” the official document indicated.
On the list is the writer and former vice president of Nicaragua Sergio Ramírez, as well as the human rights defense lawyer Vilma Núñez.
The right to exercise his profession has also been withdrawn from the former magistrate of the Court of Justice, Rafael Solíswho resigned in 2018 from this state power during the political crisis.
The measure comes two days after a similar one applied to the lawyer Yonarqui Martínez, who exposed in recent days that the Ortega government had initiated what she described as a “new repressive wave of the regime”, alluding to the arrests and executions of “express and arbitrary” processes.
The Nicaraguan international law expert Uriel Pineda, who is part of the group that has been prevented from exercising their profession since Thursday, denounced that “acts of persecution persist” against him.
For her part, lawyer María Oviedo, who is in the United States after being released from prison by the Ortega government, said that “they have taken everything from her” and that with that “they seek to destroy her.”
“They have taken everything from us. I ask God that hate does not reach me, I will not be the same as those who want to destroy me today. I will be a lawyer and Nicaraguan until the last day of my life, ”she stressed on Twitter.
Nicaraguans nationalized in Spain
The decision to remove the right to practice for this group of people occurred a few hours after the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, José Manuel Álbares, held a meeting in Washington on Thursday with Nicaraguans stripped of their nationality.
“Spain is home to the defenders of democracy and freedom. In Washington I have met with Nicaraguans to whom Spain offered their nationality after having been stripped of theirs. Today Spanish nationality has been granted to 14 of them. More will follow,” the diplomat wrote.
These are the 25 private lawyers practicing in Nicaragua
-Edgard Parrales Castillo
-Jose Bernard Pallais
-Noel Jose Vidaurre
-Roberto Emilio Larios Melendez
-Jose Noel Talavera Arauz
-Hugo Ramon Rodriguez Flores
-Marlon Gerardo Saenz Cruz
-Ana Margarita Vigil Gurdian
-Osman Marcel Aguilar Rodríguez
-Moises Abraham Astorga Saenz
-Maria del Socorro Oviedo
-Manuel de Jesus Sobalvarro Bravo
-Roger Reyes Barrera
-Hader Humberto González Zeledón
-Maria Jose Camacho Chevez
-Sergio Ramirez Mercado
-Rafael Solis Cerda
-Monica Augusta López Baltodano
Uriel de Jesus Pineda
-Hector Ernesto Mairena
-Guillermo Gonzalo Carrión
-Eliseo Nunez
-Manuel Jacinto Diaz
-Alvaro Leiva Sanchez
-Vilma Núñez de Escorcia
Nicaragua has been experiencing a political crisis since 2018, when protests arose against President Ortega, which he classified as an attempted coup.
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