A group of United Nations experts stressed on Tuesday (10) that Nicaragua “does not meet even the minimum reasonable standard of judicial independence”, while power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of dictator Daniel Ortega, and his wife, vice-leader, Rosario Murillo.
“We have identified at least 66 individuals in the middle and upper echelons of the organized apparatus of power under the rule of the country’s two rulers,” said the chairman of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, German Jan-Michael Simon, as he presented a new updated report on the country to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Uruguayan jurist and human rights expert Ariela Peralta, another member of the group, stated in the report that this power apparatus continues to facilitate, coordinate and execute serious human rights violations and abuses in the Central American country.
Crimes against humanity continue, particularly politically motivated persecution, which the group of experts has denounced in previous reports, Simon said at the presentation of the document on Tuesday.
Arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, or the instrumentalization of criminal law to eliminate any real, potential or perceived opposition, continue, he added.
“In short, victims are forced to choose between prison and leaving the country. A very recent example of this is the departure of 135 people from the country for political reasons,” Simon highlighted, referring to the recent banishment of activists and opponents to Guatemala.
Even outside Nicaragua, the Ortega regime commits human rights violations “with cross-border reach” by denying the return of many opponents to the country, warned the UN expert, who estimated the number of victims of these abuses abroad at more than 700.
“Any effort to organize the peasant population was dismantled, and the forcible seizure of universities and violations against student leaders and teachers greatly affected education,” the German jurist emphasized.
Simon also lamented that indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant communities continue to suffer serious violations of their rights to self-determination and control of their territories, where leaders and activists “are systematically persecuted by the State for defending their rights.”
The UN expert highlighted that none of the indigenous political prisoners were among the 135 released last week by authorities.
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