At least 229 cases of torture of “political prisoners” in Nicaragua since 2018, NGO denounces

Some 229 people detained in Nicaragua for political reasons in the last seven years suffered different forms of torture and other “crimes against humanity” at the hands of the authorities of the country chaired by Daniel Ortega, a human rights NGO that works since the exile

A total of 183 men and 46 women among the nearly 2,000 arrested by the social protests that broke out in April 2018 in the Central American nation were victims of these abuses, according to the “Ninth report against torture” by the Nicaragua Never Again Human Rights Collective.

At least 178 of the people who offered their testimony to the NGO, based in Costa Rica, said they had suffered “beatings, dragging, blows with weapons, threats of rape and death, threats or attacks against family members,” the report noted.

Based on the complaints, more than 40 “methods of torture” were identified, including beatings (159 cases), asphyxiation or strangulation (22), electric shocks (17), deprivation of medical care (117), burns with plastics or iron (21), detachment of nails and/or teeth (18) and isolation for more than 15 days (85).

Reuters There was no immediate response to a request for comment to Vice President and official spokesperson Rosario Murillo, Ortega’s wife.

According to the document, most of the arrests were “violent” and “arbitrary” since a court order of arrest was not presented. In 40% of them there was “participation of parastatal agents who have acted as a third armed force” in the country, he adds.

The report denounced that since 2018 the Government has committed “crimes against humanity: murder, deportation or forced transfer of the population, imprisonment, torture, rape or any other form of sexual violence of comparable severity, forced disappearance and persecution.”

The NGO’s report coincides with a warning issued on Monday by the UN Human Rights Office, which noted that the situation of fundamental guarantees in Nicaragua “continues to deteriorate.” “A repressive and very severe climate prevails in the country,” said Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif.

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