Nicaragua revoked nationality and confiscated the assets of a new group of former political prisonersa total of 135 peopleThey were sent to Guatemala last week through the mediation of the United States, a practice that has been used previously and which the UN rejects.
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The measure was announced on Tuesday by the judiciary, accused of being at the service of the government of Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, who has stepped up repression against her critics since the 2018 protestsaccording to the UN.
A court in Managua ordered the “loss of Nicaraguan nationality of 135 people convicted of criminal acts that undermined the sovereignty, independence and self-determination of the Nicaraguan people” and “ordered the confiscation of all the assets of the convicted persons,” according to a statement.
With this decision, 451 Nicaraguan opponents have been deprived of their nationality since the beginning of 2023according to a count of the Afp based on official data.
“Ortega and Murillo denationalize and steal property from the 135 released political prisoners,” wrote Nicaraguan journalist Emiliano Chamorro, exiled in the United States, on the social network X.
Ortega extends his control beyond Nicaragua’s borders
The UN itself denounced this Tuesday a law approved by the Nicaraguan parliament, controlled by the Ortega government, which could intensify, in his opinion, the “repression” of exiled Nicaraguanswhose rights he called to “protect.”
The UN Human Rights Council discussed in Geneva the report on the situation in Nicaragua, presented by Christian Salazar Volkmann, head of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
These reforms could be used to further intensify the persecution and repression of Nicaraguans, even those in exile and foreigners, for the legitimate exercise of their rights.
“These reforms could be used to further intensify the persecution and repression of Nicaraguans, including those in exile and foreigners, for the legitimate exercise of their rights,” he said.
The law to judge those who commit actions abroad against the Ortega government has been denounced by exiles as a “tool of transnational repression.”
It provides for penalties of up to 30 years in prison and confiscation of property for “crimes against public administration”“cybercrimes” or “crimes against the State or institutions”, among others.
The Ortega government has tightened legislation and repression following opposition protests in 2018Since then, some 5,500 NGOs have been closed and their assets confiscated.
The protests left in Three months more than 300 deadaccording to the UN, and since then thousands of Nicaraguans have gone into exile and hundreds have been expelled and their property confiscated.
After the arrival of the 135 former detainees to Guatemalaa US envoy asked Ortega not to strip these people of their Nicaraguan nationality, as he did with others Political prisoners released and opponents exiled.
One of the latter is the Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli, exiled since 2023 in Spain, who, before the Human Rights Council, demanded the “stop harassment of critical voices” by the Ortega government.
Writer and Cervantes Prize winner Sergio Ramírez, who was vice president of the Sandinista government (1985-90) and is now a critic of Ortega, was also stripped of his nationality.
Serious deterioration of human rights
In his annual report on the situation in Nicaragua, the High Commissioner warned last week of the “serious” deterioration of the human rights situation under the government of Ortega and Murillo.
The report documented arbitrary detentions of opposition, torture, ill-treatment in detention, increased violence against indigenous communitiesattacks on religious freedom and other abuses.
In a video intervention, the Attorney General of Nicaragua, Wendy Morales, denounced the “injustices, biases and illegalities” of the document, which was produced, in his opinion, “with a defined agenda.”
These instruments, used by the “imperialists” to intervene in internal affairs, “violate the principle of non-intervention,” said Morales, who was sanctioned by Washington in March “for being complicit in oppression.”
As of June 2023, 271,740 Nicaraguans were listed as asylum seekers in the world and 18,545 obtained refugee statusthe Group of Experts on Human Rights on Nicaragua indicated in another report in February.
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