HRW calls to prioritize the human rights situation in Nicaragua at the next EU-CELAC summit

July 14 () –

The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has appealed to the South American and European governments so that they prioritize the Human Rights situation in Nicaragua at the next EU-CELAC summit, scheduled for next week.

According to the director of HRW for the Americas, Juanita Goebertus, “the Human Rights crisis in Nicaragua requires a firm and sustained response from the democratic governments of Latin America and Europe.”

Along these lines, Goebertus has urged the leaders of both blocs to “establish a Group of Friends of the Nicaraguan People to coordinate an effective international response to Nicaragua and promote (…) a democratic transition in the country.”

In this way, HRW subscribes to the words of around 160 victims of the repression of the Daniel Ortega regime, who have written a letter in which they appeal to the EU-CELAC summit to address the situation in the Central American country.

The initiative is supported by Nicaraguans in exile and former political prisoners, such as the writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli; journalists like Carlos Fernando Chamorro; or politicians like Félix Maradiaga, Medardo Mairena or Juan Sebastián Chamorro.

In recent years, the Ortega regime has intensified the persecution of dissident voices in the country, many of whom have been arbitrarily detained and prosecuted, expelled, and deprived of their nationality and property.

“The Latin American and European governments must unite to establish a joint strategy in the face of the Nicaraguan crisis (…) The people of Nicaragua have no more time to waste,” Goebertus has settled.