The actions of the government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua against the leaders of the opposition and of the Sandinista dissidents were denounced this Tuesday, in separate spaces, by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and by the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) .
The international organization for the defense of human rights compared the current situation in Nicaragua with the Alberto Fujimori regime in Peru, after the arrest of six candidate opponents of Ortega.
“The closest thing in time (which resembles the current situation in Nicaragua) is the Fujimori regime in Peru,” the director of HRW’s Americas division, José Miguel Vivanco, said at a press conference.
Vivanco recalled that this type of strategy was followed by Fujimori in Peru in the 1990s.
“The only government that broke with the principles of a republican and democratic system in Latin America was the Fujimori regime, which was responsible for staging a self-coup, closing Congress, persecuting opposition leaders and establishing a dictatorial system,” he summarized the head of HRW.
However, he assured that “simultaneously having all the main democratic leaders and potential competitors or rivals” under arrest before the elections in the country, as in the case of Nicaragua, is an “unprecedented” situation in Latin America.
HRW released a 38-page report on Tuesday urging the United Nations to act on the recent wave of arrests against opposition leaders and other Ortega critics.
For her part, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, denounced this Tuesday before the UN Human Rights Council the deterioration of the situation in Nicaragua, which according to her makes it impossible for Nicaraguans to freely choose during the November elections.
“For three years this Council has analyzed in depth the human rights crisis that affects Nicaragua (…), but this not only does not show signs of being overcome, but it has worsened in an alarming way,” said the former Chilean president in her speech.
Bachelet regretted that from June 12 to 21, the Nicaraguan National Police and the Public Ministry arrested several members of the opposition, including five people who had made public their intention to stand as candidates for the next general elections.
The opposition is persecuted in Nicaragua
In recent weeks, the Nicaraguan authorities have detained and initiated criminal proceedings against the main opposition presidential candidates: Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro García and Miguel Mora.
On Monday, former first lady María Fernanda Flores joined the list of arrested candidates. Mora was arrested at midnight on Sunday. He was arrested by the National Police, led by Francisco Díaz, Ortega’s brother-in-law.
All of them are subject to a law approved by the ruling Congress that allows prosecuting those who, in the government’s opinion, commit acts that “undermine independence, sovereignty” and incite “foreign interference.”
Eight other political leaders, including five women, and two union leaders have also been arrested.
These arrests, according to analysts, seek to clear the way for the reelection of Sandinista Daniel Ortega for a fourth consecutive term at the helm of the country.
The high commissioner also affirmed that, since the second half of April, coinciding with the third anniversary of the start of the 2018 protests, there has been an escalation of “selective persecution” against human rights defenders, journalists and opponents.
“We continue to document cases of arbitrary detentions by the national police, and this points to the systematic repression of attempts by victims and civil society to try to protest in public spaces,” he stressed, noting that at least 124 people are deprived of liberty in the context of the current crisis.
These abuses, which also include harassment of the media and independent journalists, “generate a climate of fear” that in the opinion of the High Commissioner “inhibits the exercise of the rights to peaceful assembly, association and expression, essential to guarantee an electoral process. credible, free and fair. “
Made-up charges
The high commissioner said that the arrests have occurred “under ambiguous criminal concepts and without sufficient probative evidence,” and insisted that the arrests have been surrounded by “serious violations of procedural guarantees.”
The arrests and criminal investigations are based on two laws adopted by Nicaragua in 2018 and 2020. The office led by Bachelet had already warned that they could be used to persecute opponents, “as is indeed happening,” said the high commissioner.
Bachelet also criticized the electoral reform law adopted by the Nicaraguan authorities on May 4, which in his opinion “does not introduce safeguards to guarantee the impartiality and independence of the electoral authorities,” as well as the dissolution of two political parties ordered two weeks later. .
HRW went further and noted that the charges facing the five candidates have been “evidently fabricated” by the Ortega government.
In the specific case of Cristiana Chamorro, the opposition presidential candidate and daughter of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who ruled Nicaragua between 1990 and 1997, Vivanco said that “she is kidnapped from her home and limited only to her bedroom by armed criminals who are in control of the rest of his house and that all communications have been cut off. “
“What is sought is to remove her from the electoral contest to disable her in the face of the elections, which leaves Chamorro in a situation of total defenselessness,” argued Vivanco.
Two former deputy foreign ministers, two former dissident Sandinista guerrillas, a former business leader, a banker, four activists and two former NGO workers have also been arrested.
“This is a very serious situation that affects the validity of human rights in Nicaragua,” said Vivanco.
An international call for liberation
“I call on the Nicaraguan government to urgently change the course of action it is adopting in the electoral process,” Bachelet told the Human Rights Council in Geneva, calling for “the immediate release of all arbitrarily detained persons.”
The former Chilean president urged “to cease all acts of persecution against dissident voices, to restore the rights and freedoms that make a free, credible and equitable electoral process possible, and to repeal the restrictive legislation on civic and democratic space.”
Bachelet also appealed to the UN Human Rights Council to increase its efforts to seek the accountability of Nicaragua for the serious violations committed since 2018.
Finally, she demanded that Nicaragua allow the return of the national branch of the UN office that she directs, as well as other human rights mechanisms, “in order to help overcome the crisis that the country is experiencing.”
In a statement published in parallel to this meeting, 59 countries, including the United States and several Central American nations, urged the Ortega government to release opponents detained under controversial laws, which, in their opinion, would prevent elections from being held ” free “.
“The arbitrary dissolution of political parties and criminal proceedings against multiple candidates for the presidency and dissidents are especially worrying. We ask for their immediate release,” added the signatories.
“Nicaraguans deserve free and fair elections, through a transparent and credible process, and a peaceful solution to the socio-political crisis,” the 59 nations conclude.
Faced with this situation, HRW on Tuesday asked the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, to use his power to invoke Article 99 of the United Nations Charter in order to convene a meeting with the justification that there is a threat to the maintenance of international peace and security.
The article has only been invoked three times (1960, 1979, and 1989), as UN secretaries-general often use informal notices to draw the attention of the Security Council.
Likewise, the NGO directly urges the members of the UN Security Council to include the Nicaraguan crisis on their agenda and implement specific sanctions against those responsible for human rights violations.
Before the UN Human Rights Council, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada, for his part, denounced the “interventionist actions” of the United States and European nations and defended that the laws in Nicaragua, which “are respected”, “are similar or equal to that of any country in the world ”.
Ortega, 75, has been facing a political crisis since 2018, after demonstrations against his government that left 328 dead and thousands of exiles, according to humanitarian organizations. Managua claims that the 2018 demonstrations were an attempted coup against Ortega.
With information from AFP and EFE
