Category: Nicaragua

September 18th, 2020. The signatories of this letter denounce the repression of activists and those perceived as opponents of the Nicaraguan government at the hands of state agents during the celebration of Nicaragua’s Independence Day. Nicaraguan organizations recorded human rights violations carried out with a clear intent to intimidate those who oppose the current government’s policies. During the month of September, civil society figures, journalists, former political prisoners, and their families have all been targeted with arrests, criminalization, excessive force, raids of their homes, police harassment, death threats, vandalism, public slander, and online smear campaigns. Furthermore, women who work to defend human rights in Nicaragua are facing a dangerously violent situation. According to the data maintained by the Mesoamerican Initiative for Women Human Rights Defenders (IM-Defensoras), 165 aggressions against female…

Washington, D.C., July 31, 2020. Hundreds of Nicaraguans have been stranded at the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua for more than ten days, blocked from re-entering their home country by Nicaraguan authorities’ demand that they undergo a COVID-19 test. The migrants are unable to pay the cost of the test. Human rights organizations report that approximately 300 people are living outdoors with no access to food and poor hygiene. The migrants have crossed into Nicaraguan territory and cannot turn back to Costa Rica, nor can they pass through Nicaraguan border control until they provide a negative test. Among the group are children, elderly adults, and pregnant women, all of whom are now exposed to COVID-19 in conditions where basic sanitation and hygiene measures are impossible. Costa Rican authorities announced…