IACHR endorses report that indicates that crimes against humanity are committed in Nicaragua

Human rights organizations denounced that the Daniel Ortega regime has increased persecution and imprisonment.

Daniel Ortega continues to give something to talk about after the questioned electoral process in which the Sandinista won the victory. On this occasion, he has been accused of committing crimes against humanity.

Some 15 organizations that work for the defense of human rights presented this Thursday a document called "Report on the Truth Dictatorship and Repression in Nicaragua: Fight against Impunity", endorsed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in the that the Ortega government is accused of exercising State terrorism and a Police State of Exception.

According to what has been stated by the organizations, which have recorded the different stages in which the State has committed abuses against the population, starting in 2018, when a citizen demonstration was brutally repressed by the State's security forces, which caused death of hundreds of people.

They detail that in these demonstrations 355 people died specifically, including 27 children and adolescents, while some two thousand people were injured. 1,614 were arrested, and many workers in the health sector, teachers and students were fired and expelled from their jobs and places of study. They also said that more than 100,000 people emigrated from the country because of the instability and persecution.

The report also explains that the government of Daniel Ortega has criminalized and banned social protests, has carried out many arbitrary arrests, keeps political prisoners behind bars, the country is heading towards a State of Exception, and Express kidnappings have increased.

On the other hand, they denounced that the government was in charge of imprisoning and criminalizing 7 opposition politicians who ran as presidential candidates in the elections on November 7.

IACHR endorses the report

Antonia Urrejola, president of the IACHR, upon receiving the report via videoconference, that the document "is in line with all the reports that the Commission has made."

He acknowledged that in 2018, during the demonstrations, the State of Nicaragua took actions that should be considered crimes against humanity, according to international law. He also regretted that the Ortega government has increased the closure of democratic spaces, disappearing the demonstrations against its policies.

In this regard, the IACHR authority called on the Nicaraguan government to put an end to the torture and isolation against detained women, specifically those in the El Chipote prison, and demanded the immediate release of 160 political prisoners.

In the videoconference, representatives of the complainant organizations asserted that the whole world is aware of the atrocities that are committed in the Central American country by the Daniel Ortega regime.

However, they regretted that since the crisis deepened three years ago, they have not been able to advance in guaranteeing justice, truth and a return to democracy, and on the contrary, corruption and impunity have increased.

Given this, they invited the United Nations to install an "Independent International Fact-Determination Mission on Nicaragua."