The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) called on Latin American countries to act against “repression and human rights violations in Nicaragua”, days before the OAS General Assembly, in a statement released Friday.
The government of President Daniel Ortega, in power in Nicaragua since 2007 and re-elected in 2021 in elections called into question, has multiplied the arrests of opponents since the anti-government protests of 2018.
And last February he deprived the nationality of 222 political prisoners expelled to the United States.
In the communiqué, the IACHR – attached to the Organization of American States (OAS) – calls on the Nicaraguan government to put an end to “persecution” and release all prisoners detained “arbitrarily.”
The IACHR “rejects the continued repression and human rights violations in Nicaragua” and insists that the confiscation of the assets of the 222 released prisoners is “an arbitrary and disproportionate criminal sanction”, says the text.
It also calls on Latin American countries, the international community and the political bodies of the OAS to “promote the return to democracy” in the country.
It also expresses its concern about “the arbitrary policy” of the authorities for entry or exit from the country. It says it has received information through its Special Follow-up Mechanism for Nicaragua (MESENI) “on the arbitrary withdrawal and retention of passports or the refusal to issue” documents to prevent some citizens from traveling abroad.
The IACHR also denounces “cases of prohibition of return” of Nicaraguans, which end up in a situation of forced displacement and which has caused “the forced separation” of many families.
It also points to “new arbitrary detentions” of activists, journalists and members of the Catholic Church between April and May.
“Critical sectors of the Catholic Church” continue to be targeted by the authorities and one of the best known personalities, Bishop Rolando Alvarez Lagos, “has been held incommunicado since March 25” in a punishment cell, it reports.
The arrests of more than 140 people during Holy Week, in commemoration of the 2018 protests and in police operations “were characterized by the disproportionate use of force and violent raids,” the agency denounces.
Some were temporary, it states, but “dozens of people were prosecuted in secret hearings” or subjected to the measure of “house in jail” that keeps them “in a situation of anxiety, siege and permanent persecution”.
The organization also condemns the disbarment of 26 lawyers in May in order to impose an “atmosphere of fear and self-censorship” and “the worsening of repression” against indigenous communities by armed settlers “who act with the tolerance of the authorities”.
