First modification:
In Nicaragua, there are 182 opponents detained, including seven former candidates for the Presidency who intended to compete against Ortega in the November elections, records the group Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners. The relatives of these prisoners implored this July 7 to the heads of state of the region who are still talking with this regime to advocate for their release. Meanwhile, the repression intensifies.
Relatives of imprisoned opponents in Nicaragua denounced what they call the “heartbreaking” conditions imposed on their detained relatives and asked the heads of state in contact with President Daniel Ortega this Thursday to intercede to “save lives” because “there is no time to lose “.
crime of undermining national integrity
For its part, the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) once again warned about the intensification of the repression: “The regime has more than 180 people arbitrarily detained. This includes opponents, critics who were arrested in the context of last year’s elections. Most of them are in El Chipote, which is a detention center where they are exposed to horrible detention conditions, such as being held incommunicado, insufficient food, lights on or off 24 hours a day, without specialized medical attention. .”, details Tamara Taraciuk, director of HRW for the Americas.
In addition, “all the critics who have been detained in the electoral context were sentenced to up to 13 years in prison, mostly for a crime they call ‘undermining national integrity,’ and this occurs in criminal proceedings where Not even the slightest guarantee of due process was respected,” Taraciuk stresses.
Religious in the spotlight
Apart from persecuting politicians, protesters and the press, the Ortega regime has lately been cruel to the religious, explains Tamara Taraciuk: “Recently, they directed their repressive offensive against the Catholic Church. In March they expelled the apostolic nuncio from Managua, a few days ago missionaries from La Caridad, a religious association that provides social assistance to vulnerable people, were forced to leave the country.”
But they are just a few examples among “the more than 700 civil society organizations that the regime has dissolved in the last three, four years. And most of them have been canceled this year. They played a fundamental role in humanitarian actions in Nicaragua, which is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and shows you the extreme intolerance of the Daniel Ortega regime,” the expert concludes.
Human Rights Watch asks countries like Mexico, Honduras or Argentina, “that still interact” with Ortega, to “prioritize in their agendas” the release of political prisoners.
Add Comment