The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IDH Court) ordered the release of two opposition politicians from Nicaragua, linked to an indigenous party and who have been imprisoned since last year.
In September, the Nicaraguan National Police arrested national deputy and leader of the Yatama party, Brooklyn Rivera, in the city of Puerto Cabezas, in the Autonomous Region of the North Caribbean Coast.
Days later, in early October, Daniel Ortega's dictatorship also detained the president of Yatama, Nancy Elízabeth Henríquez, who is Rivera's deputy in the National Assembly of Nicaragua, and canceled the party's legal status.
A provisional measure from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, on the 1st, ordered the release of Rivera and Henríquez and that the government of Nicaragua “adopt the necessary measures to effectively protect their lives, personal integrity, health and personal freedom”.
Furthermore, it demanded that “the State adopts the necessary measures that allow the beneficiaries to continue exercising their political rights as indigenous regional deputies, holder and alternate, as the case may be, of the National Assembly of Nicaragua.”
In the provisional measure, the Inter-American Court highlighted that it was able to verify that Nicaragua has been experiencing a “very serious” situation since the 2018 protests against the Ortega dictatorship, which were violently repressed.
Then, the court pointed out, the Sandinista regime carried out legal proceedings “without the necessary guarantees” against participants in the demonstrations or other Nicaraguans who “have a critical position” towards the government.
The “persecution and harassment” intensified over time, the Inter-American Court found.
“The court confirms that these facts [do caso Yatama] they are related to the aforementioned context of persecution, arrests and legal proceedings carried out against people who have a critical position in relation to the government”, he pointed out.
However, the Inter-American Court's decision does not mean that Rivera and Henríquez will be released. In recent years, the international court declared Nicaragua in contempt for failing to respond to several communications from the court and failing to comply with measures to protect persecuted citizens or political prisoners of the Ortega regime.
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