Nicaragua: the controversial reform to the Penal Code that will judge those who commit acts against the Government from abroad

The Congress of Nicaragua approved on Tuesday the start of judging those who commit actions against the government of Daniel Ortega abroad, a decision that according to the opposition will be used as a “tool of transnational repression.”

A reform to the penal code approved unanimously imposes sentences of up to 30 years in prison for those who promote sanctions against the government of Managua, a crime classified as “undermining national integrity” whose interpretation is left to the courts, which are accused – like Congress – of being controlled by Ortega.

The norm, which It covers Nicaraguans and foreigners and includes the possible confiscation of property, It was approved on the same day that the UN warned of the “serious” deterioration of human rights in Nicaragua since last year, with an increase in arbitrary arrests, mistreatment and persecution of all those “perceived as dissidents” by the Ortega government.

The reform, which will come into force upon publication in the official journal, establishes that companies and NGOs can also be sanctioned.

The Ortega government has tightened legislation and repression following opposition protests in 2018. Since then, some 5,500 NGOs have been closed on the grounds of not reporting their financial statements. Their assets have been confiscated.

The protests have left more than 300 dead in three months, according to the UN, and since then thousands of Nicaraguans have gone into exile and hundreds have been expelled and their property confiscated.

“These reforms are aimed at strengthening the work of our country’s institutions responsible for combating transnational organized crime,” said pro-government deputy María Auxiliadora Martínez during the session.

For the Nicaraguan opposition, mostly exiled in Costa Rica, the United States and Spain, The reform to the penal code seeks to provide a legal framework for Ortega’s “repressive” practices against dissidents.

It allows the regime to persecute anyone, regardless of whether they are in Nicaragua or not.

“It allows the regime to persecute anyone, regardless of whether they are in Nicaragua or not.
and without the need for their presence in the trials, thus consolidating a legal framework that supports these repressive practices,” he told the AFP former presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga, exiled in the United States.

He said that Ortega is thus “extending his repressive reach internationally” to “silence the opposition anywhere in the world.”

After accusing them of “treason,” in 2023 the government released 316 critical politicians, journalists, intellectuals and activists from prison, expelled them from the country and stripped them of their nationality and property.

NGO accuses government of seeking to legitimize practices that violate human rights

For the NGO Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), The reform seeks to “legitimize new practices that violate human rights” And this is not the first time that the Nicaraguan government has reformed the law to “criminalize.”

Criminal law is governed by “territoriality” which allows a State to punish crimes committed within its territory, but This reform is “an extension of the extraterritoriality of criminal law,” said the director of Cejil for Mexico and Central America, Claudia Paz y Paz.

“It can be used to the detriment of opponents” abroad, Paz y Paz stressed, adding that the confiscation of assets from dissidents violates the American Convention on Human Rights.

Dissidents abroad also criticised the fact that expatriates are being tried without being present or having the opportunity to defend themselves.

“The inclusion of trial in absentia is particularly worrying (…), a direct attack on the fundamental principles of justice and due process,” Maradiaga said.

Paz y Paz recalled that, according to Article 8 of the American Convention, trials in absentia “violate fundamental guarantees of the right to defense.”

Ortega seeks to “give legal form to his crimes,” said former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States, Arturo McFields, exiled in the United States.

“It is giving a legal veneer to something that they have been implementing in a de facto manner in recent years,” the former diplomat told AFP.

McFields said that Ortega and Murillo’s intention is “to continue striking, attacking political adversaries or people who question the dictator.”