Nicaraguan delegation describes the situation of its country to the UN Human Rights Council before the next UPR

Nicaraguan delegation describes the situation of its country to the UN Human Rights Council before the next UPR

Geneva, April 3, 2019. In anticipation of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Nicaragua by the Human Rights Council in May, a group of human rights defenders and members of the Nicaraguan civil society described the current situation of their country to the international community in Geneva. The country has had a deep human rights crisis for almost a year.

This UPR Pre-Session was attended by representatives of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh, for its initials in Spanish), Ipas Central America, the Women’s Autonomous Movement (MAM, for its initials in Spanish), the Del Rio Foundation, the Nicaraguan Platform of NGO Networks, the Center for Justice and Human Rights of Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast (CEJUDHCAN, for its initials in Spanish), and the Marist International Solidarity Foundation (FMSI, for its initials in Spanish). All of the human right defenders exposed the violations of human rights committed in Nicaragua with the objective of educating the States that will evaluate Nicaragua in the near future.

Every five years, the UPR offers each State the opportunity to declare what steps they have taken to improve the human rights situation in their countries and to comply with its obligations in this area. However, no representatives of the State of Nicaragua attended the pre-session held today.

The event was attended by 43 diplomatic missions in Geneva, including the missions from Chile, Colombia, Belgium, Canada and Argentina. These missions asked questions focused on the situation of the more than 700 political prisoners, as well as questions regarding judicial independence and the progress of the negotiations that are currently being held between the government and civil society.

Presentation

“There has been a profound deterioration in the state of human rights in Nicaragua characterized by the repression begun in April 2018 and its effects: deaths, persons injured and disappeared, and hundreds of persons now facing trial without the guarantees of due process,” said Vilma Núñez, president of the Cenidh, during her presentation.

Núñez added that “the current government – authoritarian, repressive, and a human rights violator – has plunged the country into a profound crisis marked by social discontent and a decline in the economy that has generated unemployment, the migration of thousands of Nicaraguans, and the impoverishment of broad sectors of the population”.

Since April 2018, Nicaragua has been submerged in a serious human rights crisis that has continued to intensify. During the last two months, the government has been silencing dissenting voices. Violence is more selectively manifested towards human rights defenders, women, journalists, independent media, LGBTI persons, and civil society organizations.

Juanita Jiménez, of the MAM, emphasized that Nicaragua “has weakened the fundamental guarantees for exercising freedom of expression and protest, characterized during the 2014-2019 period by assaults, repression and intimidation, arbitrary detentions, police oversight, the tapping of independent journalists’ phones, and in the case of women, they have been victims of repeated acts of institutional violence, with attacks recorded against female journalists laced with violence and misogyny.”

Regarding the indigenous peoples and ethnic communities of the Autonomous Regions of Nicaragua, Lottie Cuningham of CEJUDHCAN pointed out that “they continue living under unacceptable conditions of inequality in a reality marked by violence, invasion of their territories, disrespect for the elections of their traditional authorities, installation of megaprojects without their prior consent, corruption, and impunity.”

Recommendations

Each of the human rights defenders who attended the pre-session of the UPR presented their recommendations to the State of Nicaragua, which could be taken up by the States that will evaluate the country in May. The recommendations included the following:

– Guarantee the rapid, exhaustive, independent, and transparent investigation of all denunciations of rape, torture, and other abuses allegedly committed by the authorities and by those acting as agents of the authorities, demand rightful responsibility, and provide reparations and compensation to the victims.

– Respect the right to social protest and refrain from continuing to criminalize protest. Persons incarcerated for having questioned the regime through their ideas and actions must be immediately released.

– Draft, together with human rights defenders, a Protocol for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Nicaragua in order to overcome the current conditions of insecurity, harassment, stigmatization, and criminalization.

– Promote, together with an international support team, an in-depth investigation of all denunciations made against hospitals and other entities that did not provide appropriate medical attention during the protests in April 2018 and subsequent months.

– Demand that the State permit international bodies to enter and remain in the country and have unlimited access to relevant information so that they may analyze, verify, and indicate the responsibilities and define the corrective measures and sanctions for those responsible for violating the population’s right to health.

– Guarantee a system for recording information so as to provide an understanding of the real state of the violence, sexual violence, and maternal mortality in the country in order to develop appropriate strategies and actions for timely prevention and attention.

– Develop a State policy for attending to other victims of femicide, including sons, daughters, and other relatives, and create a Special Fund for compensating the families of femicide victims.

– Restore the territorial rights of indigenous communities, protecting them from the invasions of “settlers/colonists” or non-indigenous persons and third parties by establishing a dialogue with the traditional authorities to reach agreement on the procedure for freeing 23 titled indigenous lands of encumbrances.

– Consult indigenous peoples prior to initiating planned legislative or administrative measures that can directly affect them, such as megaprojects, extractive activities, or infrastructure works.

State did not comply with recommendations

The recommendations that were made to the State of Nicaragua in the previous UPR, in 2014, “were not implemented,” said Mayte Ochoa, of Ipas Central America, who maintained that the government “in some cases took on commitments it did not fulfill and in others, refused to undertake the required reforms and adapt legislation to international standards.”

PRONOUNCEMENT: Negotiations in Nicaragua must prioritize respect for all human rights

Washington, D.C. March 22, 2019. The Nicaraguan government and the Civic Alliance for Democracy and Justice resumed negotiations yesterday and agreed to discuss the following issues to ensure a fair and democratic solution to the ongoing human rights crisis that the country has been facing since April of last year: the release of political prisoners; the strengthening of constitutional rights and guarantees; the implementation of electoral reforms; the assurance of truth, justice, reparation, and non-repetition; and the development of mechanisms to implement the agreements.

According to a joint statement published yesterday, the Nicaraguan authorities committed themselves to “release within a period of no more than ninety days all persons arrested and detained in the context of the events that occurred as of April 18, 2018, in accordance with the country’s legal procedures.”

The Pro-Liberation Committee of Nicaraguan Political Prisoners registers at least 802 people who are deprived of liberty in different prisons throughout the country, in police stations, or under house arrest. All of them were detained and many are being prosecuted for having participated in the demonstrations that demanded the end of governmental repression, justice for the victims of human rights violations that occurred in this context of repression, and reforms to democratize public institutions.

Although the Nicaraguan government had insisted that political prisoners were “common criminals” who committed crimes as part of a supposed coup d’état, the Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada accepted yesterday that authorities will release “all the persons that the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) has identified as political prisoners,” according to a letter sent to Luis Almagro, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States.

During eleven months of crisis, Nicaraguan prisons have been denounced as torture centers and places where prisoners are subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment, discrimination, sexual violence, insufficient or inexistent medical attention and constant harassment.

In addition to this, in the last eleven months the repression of anti-government protests has resulted in at least 325 people dead, more than 2,000 injured, and around 50,000 people who had to leave the country as refugees, according to information from the IACHR and the United Nations.

Race and Equality considers that the negotiations that the Nicaraguan Government and the Civic Alliance have resumed can represent a significant advance in the search for a peaceful solution to the crisis that the country is experiencing. However, for this to occur, the agreements must be implemented with respect for human rights, especially the rights to truth, justice, and reparations for the victims of the serious violations of human rights incurred by the State of Nicaragua.

The agreements reached in this negotiation should not allow for impunity for crimes committed by police forces and parastatal groups or ordered by the highest authorities, as documented by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI, for its initials in Spanish).

We consider it necessary to restore legal status to the nine organizations of civil society that have been denied their right to exercise rights and incur obligations since December. These organizations, as well as the companies linked to the journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, must also have the goods and assets that were illegally occupied by the authorities restored.

Likewise, we consider it urgent that all persons in Nicaragua are able to express themselves and demonstrate freely. Journalists and independent media must be able to exercise their right to inform and broadcast without fear of reprisals from power.

Finally, Race and Equality considers that the release of political prisoners should be done without delay and simultaneously with the annulment of all judicial processes against them so that these imprisoned citizens, student leaders, peasants, journalists, human rights defenders, men and women can immediately recover their total freedom and continue with their work.

Race and Equality Recognizing the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Message from Carlos Quesada – Executive Director Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights

Today, March 21st, we again commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. In observing what is happening in the world and in our continent, I can only think about how discrimination, racism, xenophobia, and intolerance are gaining ground. They are highly present in the media, in politics, in our societies and in our daily lives. Fighting for the elimination of all forms of discrimination, xenophobia, homophobia, and intolerance is one of the fundamental pillars to promote social cohesion, the right to live, and diversity.

I want to call attention to the fact that in our continent, only three countries have ratified the Inter-American Convention Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Related Intolerance: Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Antigua and Barbuda. It is imperative that the rest of the States in the region truly assume the commitment to combat, punish, and eliminate this scourge that eats away at our societies. We urge States to sign and ratify this important Inter-American instrument, especially as a part of the Action Plans they should develop during the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015 – 2024).

We cannot allow Afro-descendants in the Americas to continue being the most marginalized populations and the most affected by the structural racism that is reflected in few state investments, high rates of illiteracy, under-representation in decision-making bodies, and under-representation within the system of administration of justice. Young Afro-descendants continue to be victims of racial profiling and police brutality. Afro-descendant women continue to have little access to health and education, which perpetuates high levels of poverty.

States are preparing to begin a new census round (2020) where we hope not only to have quanitifiable data on how many Afro-descendants there are, but also on the socioeconomic conditions of these populations. States must use this data to make a better use of their resources and invest in the most impoverished areas, which coincide with the areas in which Afro-descendants live.

In this second decade of the 21st century, it has become clear that Afro-descendants, thanks to their resilience, expect more than good intentions: they expect real structural changes. More Afro-descendant academics, politicians, professionals, and businesspeople have demonstrated not only the contributions they have made to their countries, but also that they are part of, have built, and will continue to build the identities of the countries where they live, from Canada to Argentina. This is true whether they are called black, African-Americans, Afro-latinos, palenqueros, raizales, o pretos!

From Race and Equality, we will continue to make visible, combat, and denounce the scourge of racial discrimination and other related forms of intolerance together with our partners in the hemisphere, who with their experience and struggle have made progress at both the national and international level.

150 political prisoners were released in Nicaragua, but 600 remain incarcerated

Washington, DC, March 15, 2019. The government of Nicaragua released 150 political prisoners from prison and officially put them under house arrest in the last three weeks. The release occurred as a part of the negotiations held by a governmental delegation and members of the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy to seek a way out of the human rights crisis that started in Nicaragua in April 2018.

The release took place in two different moments. Today, the Ministry of Interior (Migob, for its initials in Spanish) published a list of 50 people (8 women and 42 men) who, as of today, had their detention conditions changed. Included in the list are the student leaders Yaritza Rostrán and Levis Artola and students from Matagalpa, Nelly Roque and Solange Centeno.

“The prison in its entirety is appalling, but there are many women who are real warriors,” Rostrán told reporters, according to La Prensa newspaper.

Families of political prisoners and their defenders have reported on several occasions that they suffer cruel and inhuman treatment, discrimination, sexual violence, lack of medical attention, threats, and harassment by prison authorities.

Another 100 prisoners of conscience (12 women and 88 men) were released on February 27th, the same day that negotiations started again after the National Dialogue was suspended in June 2018 as a result of the continued repression of protesters by police and parastatal agents.

Negotiations

The release of the last group of prisoners that took place today occured after the Civic Alliance retired a week ago from the negotiating table due to the refusal of the Nicaraguan government to give “credible gestures” to achieve true changes. However, on Wednesday, March 13th, authorities announced that they would release an “appreciable amount” of people, which prompted negotiations to resume on Thursday.

“The release of political prisoners is a deciding factor for the smooth running of the negotiation process with the government,” the president of the American Chamber of Commerce of Nicaragua (Amcham) and delegate of the Civic Alliance, Mario Arana, told the digital media Confidencial yesterday.

According to figures from the Pro-Liberation Committee of Nicaraguan Political Prisoners, at least 777 people are deprived of their liberty for having exercised their right to protest. This means there are still more than 600 people imprisoned for exercising that human right.

According to the government, the 150 people recently released from prison were not political prisoners because they committed “crimes against common security and crimes against public tranquility” during anti-government demonstrations.

This decision to send home 50 Nicaraguans who were imprisoned for exercising their right to protest civically coincides with the refusal of police to allow the march called by Blue and White National Unity on March 17th to take place. The march was called to demand the unconditional release of all the political prisoners. The decision also coincides with an increase in police presence in the capital to intimidate the people and persuade them not to go out to protest.

Since April, when a human rights crisis began in Nicaragua as a result of state repression of civic demonstrations throughout the country, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reports that at least 325 people died and another 2,000 were injured.

Race and Equality demands the immediate release of all political prisoners in Nicaragua.

“We lesbian, bisexual, and trans women are not only killed for being women, but also for having chosen to be women.” – Laura Weinstein

“There is no single way of being a woman; there are numerous ways.”

International Women’s Day represents an opportunity to continue defending the fight for recognition of women’s rights.  It is, however, also a space for calling on the Colombian society and State to recognize the diversity and multiplicity of the women who make up the social construct.  Race & Equality spoke with Laura Weinstein, a defender of the rights of trans persons in Colombia and Director of the Fundación Grupo de Apoyo a Personas Trans [Support Group Foundation for Trans Persons] (GAAT), who declares that in order to make progress in building an inclusive, equitable, democratic, and peaceful society, those diverse women who have to date been ‘invisibilized’ and doubly violated must be recognized.

What is the state of the rights of lesbian, bisexual, and trans women in Colombia?

Although we have made important strides in the area of women’s rights, including Colombia’s diverse women, I believe it is not enough, especially because great progress is still needed in recognizing the existence of lesbian, bisexual, and trans women (LBT), not only because society still does not understand the experience of LBT women’s lives and identity, but also because it would appear that the rights we fight for are different from the rest of society, of persons who have access to various rights, and it’s not like that, which is exactly what places us in a different fighting spot.

I would say that the first thing we need to do is to make our society understand that we are not demanding different rights than those that exist which all of us should enjoy; we are not talking about a different type of rights, but rather, the same rights that precisely because of our sexual identity or orientation are denied us or in the majority of cases delimited.  [An example is] the case of trans women accessing their identity, the complications in receiving medical attention to ensure we are not violated, work, education, and many other social participation spaces that delimit us.  In the case of lesbian and bisexual women, there is even less understanding regarding their rights because the idea that these women are “confused” has held sway socially and that “sooner or later” it will be resolved – a situation that not only violates these women’s freedom, but also makes them utterly invisible.  In addition – and this must be said – trans women’s being women is questioned, that’s why they put us on a different level, as there are difficulties related to being women, but these women have other particularities and other needs, as it puts you in spaces that are a lot more complex.

The lack of recognition of the actual effects on women of diverse sexual and gender identities by the women’s movement throughout the region is still very obvious.  Can drawing attention to the importance of treating these effects experienced by LBTI women in a differentiated manner as a part of the struggle for and defense of women’s rights be considered discriminatory or exclusionary, or do you believe it is necessary to address it in a differentiated manner?

  I do indeed believe it is important to speak about them, speak about their effects and the way in which their rights should be guaranteed, because what is not named doesn’t exist.  And so, by not making them visible we are simply hiding a reality that needs to be counted.  We are additionally saying that nothing’s going on, that all of us are in the same situation, in the same place, and it’s not like that.  A cisgender heterosexual woman, for example, is killed for being a woman, a truly grave thing; but in the case of lesbian women or trans women, not only do they kill us for being women, but also for having decided to be women.  Becoming women puts us in a different place from that construction of being a woman, because let’s not forget that being a woman is not something you are born with but rather, is a construction based on the relationship of the other (males and females) that configures you, yourself.  Thus, I feel it is important to speak and talk about the needs that exist – in this case, of LBT women – though recognizing that in and of itself, deciding to be a woman already puts you in a different place than what is societally entailed by being a man or woman.

What are the principal violations committed against LBT women in Colombia?

GAAT’s work is concentrated on the trans population, though we must understand that we have a direct relationship of struggle with lesbian and bisexual women.  For example, in the latter case, the impacts are completely invisible because socially those women are unrecognized, it is as if they don’t exist; they are women who are commonly considered “confused” or “indecisive” and this clearly leads those women to question who they are, as if something were wrong with them, and, well, it shouldn’t be like that.  In the case of lesbian women, [what occurs are] systematic corrective violations of “what you need is a man” so that there will supposedly be a “rectification” of their sexual orientation and they can thus come to see what they are missing in their lives.

In the case of transsexual women, there is also the idea related to the negation of the privilege with which they are born, because of this, but when a person says “it’s just that this isn’t me,” “this is not what I want to experience or go through,” she has a death that is assumed as a betrayal, and the betrayal is paid for through the loss of life, but it’s not just that they kill you, but also the loss of access to all of the rights that any other person could have.  That’s the type of violence we experience and feel; but surely there are many other things, for example, the subjugation of trans women within the framework of the war, in that they are utilized as weapons of war and sexual weapons.  That is, they look like women and as such are showy, though they also have the strength of men and that is taken advantage of for the war.

What do GAAT and Laura Weinstein call on the Colombian State and society in general to do regarding the recognition of LBT women’s rights?

The call is to recognize the identities and great variety of we women who exist, and not only limit it to gender orientations and identities but rather, ensure that there is no single way of being female, that there be a multiplicity of ways of defining ourselves as women: Afro women, campesina women, [and] women who are heads of households are examples of this.  So I believe that it’s important that the Colombian society and State recognize the very important role played by these diverse women in this country’s progress, which the State has oftentimes ‘invisibilized.’

The same thing goes for society as well – it must truly provide space for women because women are the ones who have leant so much strength to this country and have demonstrated that we exist here and that we can live here, and that the role women play has been fundamental.

What strategies or mechanisms should the Colombian State or society put in place to recognize the rights of lesbian, bisexual, and trans women?

 It’s important to recognize their existence, that’s where everything starts, recognizing that the Other exists, that the Other has a place in society, that regardless of who it is or how the person is, he/she deserves life.  I think that’s where we need to start.  We need to launch campaigns recognizing the existence of other identities, other ways of being, not like others describe them – as being “other women” – thereby implying that these women are “normal,” while those other women are “different.”  No – rather, we should be able to find the multiplicity of what it means to be a woman, because we are exactly that, diverse and different.

International Women’s Day: WE ARE WOMEN IN THE STRUGGLE AND ALL OF US ARE DIVERSE!

On March 8, 2019, in commemoration of International Women’s Day, the International Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race & Equality) remembers and stands with the struggle of all women throughout the world for recognition and guarantees of their rights.

Despite the many efforts and clear progress made in the area of rights to improve the state of women in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially as regards the closure of gender gaps, and guarantee women’s real and effective access to health, education, employment, and political and economic participation, the huge challenge remains of overcoming the inequities that persist in virtually all spheres, particularly  when dealing with women who are racialized, ethnic, rural, or have diverse gender identities.

According to the data provided by Michelle Bachelet, the current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in an article entitled The State of Women in Latin America: 25 Years of Light and Shadows, 9,300 women die every year from causes related to pregnancy and their deficient gynecological-obstetric practices.  For every 100 men who live in poverty, 118 women live in a similar state, a figure that accounts for a systematic increase in poverty among women in the region since 1997 and up to the present day.

Despite the fact that women’s participation in the labor market has made notable strides, women continue to be a minority presence, marked by a series of “micro-aggressions” related to gender parity, the reason for which, according to CEPAL, women’s participation in the labor market has stalled at around 53%, and the 78.1% of women who work are in sectors defined by CEPAL as having low productivity, entailing worse remuneration, low social security coverage, and less contact with technology and innovation.

As regards women’s political participation, the challenge remains to increasing the presence of women in spaces of power to thereby transform the patriarchal structures that make it impossible for women to have a presence in governments, the management of public and private businesses, and in the development of laws.  “As long as we are not allowed to be decision-makers [or] participate in spaces of power, the possibility of leveling the playing field and building our societies under equal conditions will be a utopia,” notes the chief.  

In the area of gender-based violence, Latin America and the Caribbean continue to present the highest rate of assaults against women, ranked 14 among the 25 countries with the highest indices of femicide in the world.  Approximately 2,100 women are assassinated every year (six per day and 175 every month) for the simple fact of being women, according to what Bachelet indicated.

The foregoing provides a quick glance at the state of women’s rights in the region; nonetheless, a series of factors that run contrary to them have cross-cut the recognition of women’s diversity and the particularity of their conditions vis-à-vis the enforceability of rights; that is, rural women, Afro-descendant women, and those with diverse sexual and gender identities additionally confront other types of violence that we should make visible on this day.

According to the CEPAL report Afro-Descendant Women in Latin America and the Caribbean: Debts of Equality, the ‘visibilization’ of the historic presence of Afro-descendant women demands recognition of their concrete experience as women who live within a historical, social, and cultural context of slave-owning and racist societies.  Contexts, therefore, that deepen the inequities faced by Afro-descendant women as compared with other social groups, due to their ‘invisibilization’ as subjects of differentiated policies with particular impacts and thus, worrisome indices of poverty, little possibility to access healthcare, education, employment, and participation in decision-making spaces much lower that that of the rest of the population, further undermined by racist and discriminatory logic that is a product of the historical legacy manifested in the ways in which Afro-descendant peoples develop in society.

Something similar occurs with lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex women who throughout history have confronted physical and symbolic violence incorporated into the social group that makes it impossible for their sexual and gender identities to be recognized and thus, have their fundamental rights guaranteed.

According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association (ILGA), persons who self-identify as having an identity that differs from cisgender (socially concordant with the sex assigned at birth) or are socially recognized [as such], suffer from innumerable human rights violations.  In particular, in Latin America women are the recipients of a series of violent acts on the part of male chauvinists who stigmatize and/or pigeonhole them in roles in which they are not allowed to freely express themselves and recognize their identity.  It is thus that on average, the life expectancy of trans women is no greater than 30 years; their participation in the labor market lags behind, a high percentage of them work in the informal sector or as sexual workers, and they confront violent and complex processes for accessing health [and] education services and participating in spaces of decision-making and power.

We at Race & Equality call on all of the States of Latin America and the Caribbean to continue working to ensure guarantees and recognition of women’s rights.  Unquestionably, empowered women break the cycles of violence and poverty, decisive factors in making progress in consolidating societies that are more equitable and democratic.  To ensure that result, it is essential to continue working to break historically rooted patriarchal schemas, especially as they relate to women’s participation in decision-making spaces.

We urge the States to not lose sight of plurality and diversity in the construction of what it means to be a woman, in which it is essential to undertake affirmative actions that recognize Afro-descendant [and] rural women and women with diverse sexual and gender identities, in this way breaking the barriers that historically have systematically prevented the inclusion and participation of this group of women in social life and ensured that their future generations were subject to the same vicious cycle of inequality, racism, and discrimination.

CENIDH and its Contributions to the Defense of Nicaraguans’ Human Rights

Washington, DC, February 25, 2019 – Two months have transpired since the Nicaraguan National Assembly invalidated the legal status of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH, for its initials in Spanish) without justification, and since then, police officers have illegally occupied the organization’s premises after having violently broken in and taken possession of a significant portion of their work equipment, documentation, and vehicles.

The illegal dissolution of CENIDH has been a “devastating blow” to its founder, Dr. Vilma Núñez de Escorcia. “We are one more victim of Daniel Ortega’s repression. We are no longer just human rights defenders who accompany the victims but rather, we [too] are victims,” she recently said in an interview with Race & Equality.

The legislators allege that on December 12, 2018, CENIDH and eight other civil society organizations committed illegal acts by disturbing the peace and carrying out activities that were not appropriate to the goals for which they had been founded. The process was swift, and those organizations were given no opportunity to defend themselves.Since the early morning of December 14 – the day on which the police officers illegally broke into CENIDH headquarters in Managua – the defenders have been unable to enter their offices, and in the face of the constant siege, have had to protect themselves in undisclosed locations. In addition, the Chontales office was also taken by the police and the affiliates in Matagalpa and Estelí are not sufficiently safe for the team to work on the premises.

“We had no time to make a collective decision as to what to do,” declared Núñez, who explained that the CENIDH team is currently disbanded.  This situation has forced them to stop their direct work with tens of victims daily, especially within the context of the human rights crisis that has enveloped Nicaragua since April 2018.

At the international level, numerous human rights organizations, regional organizations, and cooperating governments that have partnered with CENIDH since its founding nearly three decades ago joined their voices to denounce the arbitrary nature of each organization’s shuttering.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed its “concern” regarding the real intention behind the cancellation of the legal status of civil society organizations.  “The forced dissolution of the civil organizations, especially those related to human rights defense, constitutes one of the most severe forms of restricting freedom of association.  Furthermore, this is a measure that affects defendants and their defenders and is aimed at silencing those who denounce the grave state of human rights in the country,” declared Paulo Abrão, Executive Secretary of the IACHR.

Similarly, the spokesperson for the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, said that the decision of the Nicaraguan authorities to revoke the legal status of the civil society organizations “represents an additional blow to the rule of law, civil liberties, and respect for human rights.”

Eight months of crisis

On April 18 [2018], a group of elderly people accompanied by young university students began a protest in León against some social security reforms that increased the monthly fees paid by employees, employers, and the State while reducing retiree pensions by 5%.  According to the decree, these reforms would serve to bail the Instituto Nicaragüense de Seguridad Social [Nicaraguan Social Security Institute] (INSS) out of a possible bankruptcy.

The protest in León was strongly suppressed by members of the Juventud Sandinista [Sandinista Youth], a group backed by the governing party.  This pattern repeated itself in Managua, where these groups attacked protesters who called for the cancelation of the reforms from two different parts of the capital city.

Images of the repression were rapidly disseminated via social media and the following day, April 19th, the protests expanded into several departments in the country.  The police joined the ‘assault groups’ [‘grupos de choque’] to repress [the protests] and by nightfall the first three deaths were reported.  More than 50 people died between April 20th and 22nd as a result of the repression, while 200 others were temporarily detained.

The CENIDH team immediately threw themselves into responding to the crisis.  Dr. Vilma Núñez was the one who organized a plan of action they would begin to execute that day and, though she did not know it at the time, continue over the course of the next eight months.

“What I did was to assign concrete roles to everyone: one person was in charge of keeping count of the prisoners; my office kept count of the dead; another person was in charge of the denunciations . . .” recalled Núñez, who has been “an active participant in the cause of human rights” for 60 years.

CENIDH held press conferences on an almost daily basis and its team’s capacity to respond by verifying information was very agile.  The members of the four CENIDH affiliates traveled to the places where attacks against the population had been reported, accompanying the relatives of the disappeared and detained to attend to the procedures to gain their release from the penitentiary systems of the Dirección de Auxilio Judicial [Directorate of Judicial Aid] (DAJ).  They also documented denunciations of human rights violations committed primarily by people related to the government, paramilitary groups, or members of the Nicaraguan Police.

By six months after the onset of the human rights crisis in Nicaragua, CENIDH had received more than 1,800 denunciations regarding the repression and violence, with most of them coming in between May and August.  Those denunciations primarily concerned threats, though they also received denunciations regarding people who had

been detained, assassinated, and tortured, according to the report Grave Human Rights Violations Perpetrated by the State of Nicaragua published by CENIDH at the end of 2018 that describes the rights that had been violated during six months of civil resistance to governmental repression.

Said report details how between April and September CENIDH documented the assassination of 316 people [and] arrest of 349 women and men; of the latter, 248 have to date been accused of diverse crimes, among them terrorism, organized crime, hindering public services, robbery, and the use of restricted weapons.

During this time, CENIDH also worked very closely with international missions that traveled to the country to monitor the crisis, such as the IACHR on its first field visit in May, as well as its Special Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua (MESENI) and its Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI); the mission of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR); and other independent organizations, such as Amnesty International.

This intense work of accompanying the victims and denouncing in the national and international arenas the human rights violations that were occurring – and continue to occur – is for many activists, defenders, and CENIDH members themselves the reason they were persecuted by the authorities.

“This persecution is nefarious,” denounced Vilma Núñez to national journalists last year.  The obstacles faced by CENIDH defenders in doing their work increased every so often: they were not allowed into the oral and public trials; they were not allowed to advocate in public instances; and they confronted obstacles to filing legal appeals in governmental agencies.

“I believe the government began to see CENIDH not only as an irritating actor but rather, a wrench shoved into some of the measures which they wish to continue implementing and into their political governing plan,” commented Viviana Krsticevic, Executive Director of the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), an organization that has worked with CENIDH since its founding.

Origin

CENIDH was founded in May 1990 when Violeta Barrios de Chamorro became President of Nicaragua, ending a decade of Sandinista government.  Its founders, a group of 11 activists and academics, thought that some of the achievements driven by the revolution in the area of economic and social rights – such as free healthcare and education – would be limited by the new government.  “That was the initial idea that drove us,” recalls Vilma Núñez, who led the new organization.  It gained legal status in September of that same year.

“We would always verify the denunciations of human rights violations in the places where the incidents occurred, not in the office,” says Núñez.

The first task they set for themselves was to start building capacity.  “Our challenge was to teach people that demanding healthcare in a hospital, demanding high-quality schools and education, are human rights,” recalls the lawyer-defender.  Thus was born CENIDH’s human rights training program – a program that trained thousands of people for years and resulted in a network of promoters that at one point totaled 1,500 members throughout the country.

However, they also began receiving denunciations of human rights violations, gathering evidence to verify them “in the places where the incidents occurred rather than in the office,” and denouncing the arbitrariness of the respective governmental administrations.

“There were no significant problems with Ms. Violeta’s government; on the contrary, there was openness.  Some problems began with Arnoldo Alemán,” notes Núñez.  The administration of Arnoldo Alemán (1997-2001), through the Office of the Public Prosecutor, accused Vilma Núñez of leading the Frente Unido Andrés Castro [Andrés Castro United Front] (FUAC), a group of rearmed people comprised of former members of the army.  CENIDH had in fact been sought out to play the role of mediator in the disarmament negotiations.  However, then-Attorney General Julio Centeno rejected the accusation because there was no evidence to sustain it.  Nevertheless, CENIDH continued denouncing President Alemán’s corruption; he was later sent to trial and declared guilty of money laundering in Nicaragua.

[While] the government of Enrique Bolaños Geyer (2002-2006) “could not conceive of an alliance with civil society with regard to governmental proceedings, there was no repression,” recalls Núñez.

Following Bolaños, Daniel Ortega assumed power anew in early 2007.  Since then, and until shortly before the crisis was unleashed, CENIDH began to issue warnings regarding the deterioration of the rule of law in Nicaragua – not only at the national level but also on international platforms.

“On the international level, the work performed by CENIDH in recent years has been very important in drawing attention to [and] warning about the deterioration of the rule of law and a series of patterns of human rights violations occurring in Nicaragua that were not on the international radar,” affirmed Viviana Krsticevic of CEJIL.

International arena

 Krsticevic well knows the work performed by CENIDH: since CEJIL’s founding in late 1992, both organizations began to work collaboratively.  “CEJIL worked quite a bit with CENIDH, precisely to issue warnings regarding the deterioration of democracy in Nicaragua under various administrations,” notes the defender.

Together, they have requested precautionary measures for tens of persons who have been at risk, and they brought CENIDH’s first lawsuit in the Inter-American System, the Yatama Case.

The case of Yatama vs Nicaragua

In 2001, CENIDH and CEJIL filed a petition before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in representation of the members of the Yatama indigenous organization and political leaders of the Autonomous Regions of the Northern Caribbean Coast and Southern Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, suing the State of Nicaragua for having excluded them from participating in regional elections in 2000 when mayors, deputy mayors, and councilmembers were chosen.

The petition was admitted in 2001, and in 2005 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of Yatama, declaring that the State of Nicaragua had violated the indigenous leaders’ rights to judicial guarantees, judicial protection, and political rights of equality before the law.

In the ruling, the Court ordered the State of Nicaragua to reform its Electoral Law so as to ensure the participation of members of indigenous communities in electoral processes, compensate Yatama for material and intangible damages, and pay its trial costs.

Approximately 13 years have passed since the ruling was issued, yet “the government has not fully complied,” maintains Núñez, given that although the government began to issue compensation, it imposed the condition on the members of Yatama that CENIDH could not participate in the arrangements between the two parties.

The case of Acosta vs Nicaragua

Afterward, CENIDH also accompanied María Luisa Acosta, a defender of human rights and indigenous and Afro-descendant communities on the Caribbean Coast, in filing her case before the IACHR, wherein she denounced the State of Nicaragua for a partial failure of justice and lack of protection for herself following the assassination of Francisco García Valle, Acosta’s husband.  The crime occurred in Bluefields, in the Southern Caribbean Autonomous Region in Nicaragua, on April 8, 2002, allegedly in retaliation for Acosta’s role as a human rights defender and legal representative of the communities of Laguna de Perlas, Monkey Point, and El Rama.

The IACHR referred the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and in October 2016 a first hearing was held.  Finally, in March 2017 the Inter-American Court ruled in favor of Acosta and determined that the State of Nicaragua had violated the American Convention on Human Rights to the detriment of the defender, in light of the fact that the responses of Nicaragua’s criminal justice system were insufficient regarding García Valle’s homicide.

In addition, the Inter-American Court declared the State of Nicaragua responsible for violating the rights to justice, truth, judicial guarantees, and judicial protection to Acosta’s detriment.  Furthermore, it ordered the State to adopt measures to ensure the homicide would not remain shrouded in impunity with regard to the participation of the perpetrators; develop protection mechanisms and investigation protocols for human rights defenders who are at risk; and pay compensation to Acosta to cover the material and intangible harms sustained and repay her costs and expenditures.

The State finally compensated Acosta, her family, and the litigating organizations; however, it has yet to draw up protocols, nor has it adopted measures to ensure cases like Acosta’s are not repeated.

In addition to these cases that have been litigated, CENIDH has filed more than 20 cases before the IACHR, although not all have been referred to the Inter-American Court.  Currently, the organization is litigating several cases, such as the femicide of Dina Carrión; cancellation of the legal status of the Movimiento Renovador Sandinista [Sandinista Reformer Movement] (MRS); discrimination faced by Ana Margarita Vijil in her quest to serve as a legislator in the National Assembly; and transparency in the 2006 presidential election.

During its nearly 30 years of existence, CENIDH has participated in appearances before United Nations bodies; thematic hearings before the IACHR and its Rapporteurs; the drafting of reports for the three cycles of the Universal Periodic Review; [and] advocacy activities regarding the priorities contained in said reports, and is a member of worldwide organizations such as the World Organization against Torture and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its regional organizations.

“CENIDH has demonstrated over time a level of consistency [and] integrity in the defense of rights, in the defense of democracy in Nicaragua that make it an essential actor in human rights work,” opined CEJIL’s Executive Director.

Current government

Vilma Núñez believes the current government of Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, has “attacked CENIDH more than any other [organization].  We never imagined there could be so much hatred, so much cruelty,” she confesses.

According to Núñez, the problems with the current presidential couple began in 1998, when CENIDH decided to defend Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo, Ortega’s stepdaughter, who had accused him of rape.

The case was made public and reached the IACHR.  “We managed to get it admitted and they proposed an amicable settlement,” says Núñez.  In the end, Zoilamérica withdrew the petition.  Nonetheless, Ortega did not cease his persecution of CENIDH members, who continued denouncing the human rights violations committed by the authorities against the populace.

Denunciations at the national level

In recent years, CENIDH received an average of 1,600 denunciations yearly from the population in various departments throughout the country, who saw this organization as the place to turn to in their search for justice due to the lack of autonomy of institutions such as the Human Rights Defense Ombudsman.

According to CENIDH’s annual reports, between 2007 and 2016 35% of the denunciations received by this organization were against the National Police (some 5,584).  Said denunciations were related to physical assaults and abuse at the moment of detention; repression of social protest; lack of compliance with the duty to intervene on behalf of the physical integrity of citizens who were demanding their rights before the ‘assault forces’ [‘fuerzas de choque’] that attacked them; and cruel [and] inhuman treatment and torture in police cells.

During that same period, the rest of the denunciations were against private individuals (31%, or 4,965 cases) and other authorities or private entities (34%, or 5,456 cases).

CENIDH’s annual reports provide irrefutable proof of the work performed every year by that institution’s defenders at the national and international levels.  In addition to analyzing the state of Nicaraguans’ rights one by one – including civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights – they detail specific situations regarding the rights of women, children and adolescents, the elderly, persons with disabilities, immigrants, indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, the LGBTI community, and human rights defenders.  These reports take the pulse of the country’s current situation in the year in which they are published.

The outlawing of CENIDH due to all of ifs aforementioned work represents a loss of capacity in the work of defending the rights of all Nicaraguans, according to Viviana Krsticevic.  “Human rights protection does not only depend on the existence of laws and institutions; it requires people who are willing to defend those rights, and CENIDH was and is an organization that has served that purpose.  Its legal shuttering hinders and limits the capacity to protect rights in the country and affects the capacity to document and transmit information to the outside,” noted the CEJIL representative.

Krsticevic adds that the legal shuttering of CENIDH “is not the end of the institution by a long shot and does not represent the end of work to defend human rights in Nicaragua,” but rather, is “evidence of the authoritarianism of the government in confronting denunciations of grave human rights violations and confronting some of the denunciations of abuse being committed by the government itself.”

Although for the moment CENIDH has ceased directly working with the tens of victims it used to attend to on a daily basis, especially within the context of the human rights crisis in Nicaragua, Núñez is hopeful that her team will continue the project she founded almost 30 years ago.  “I think that when this dictatorship ends, they will have to return everything to us.  Perhaps I will no longer be able to do so, but the team that wants to continue CENIDH will have to do it,” she states.

The organization, putting into practice its logo “Rights that are not defended are rights that are lost,” has filed legal appeals which, once resolved, will permit it to file complaints internationally regarding the stripping of its legal status and illegal occupation of its assets that has had, for all intents and purposes, the effect of a de facto seizure.

Principal photo: EFE

Lucía Pineda, Nicaraguan journalist apprehended for her reporting, receives precautionary measures from the IACHR

Washington, DC, February 22, 2019 – Nicaraguan journalist Lucía Pineda Ubau, Head of the Editorial Office of Canal 100% Noticias [100% News Channel], this Friday received precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in light of that body’s belief that her rights to life and physical integrity are “in a state of grave risk.”

Pineda Ubau, 45 years old, is currently detained in the La Esperanza [The Hope] Women’s Penitentiary System and faces a trial for the crimes of provocation, proposition, and conspiracy to commit terrorist acts in which due process guarantees have not been respected.

According to the information received by the IACHR, the initial persecution of the journalist and her subsequent detention and trial “would be presumed retaliation for the exercise of her journalistic activities and right to freedom of expression.”

The journalist denounced through 100% Noticias “the repression by the National Police to disband the protests, as well as multiple detentions, denunciations of torture, disappearances, and allegedly arbitrary trials that were initiated against protesters,” highlights the IACHR.

Through its Resolution No. 873-18, the IACHR asks the State of Nicaragua to adopt the necessary measures to guarantee the rights to life and physical integrity of Pineda and her nuclear family, whose identity the IACHR reserves.

Specifically, it asks the State to ensure that prison agents respect the journalist’s rights “pursuant to standards established by international human rights law,” given that it is known that Pineda has been submitted to at least 30 interrogations lasting several hours with the goal of recording a video of her asking President Daniel Ortega for forgiveness.

They are also asking the State to ensure that the conditions in which Lucía Pineda Ubau are detained adhere to international standards.

Since being detained, Pineda has reported to her defense attorney that she sleeps on the floor, receives no food, and has nothing with which to clean herself, which has resulted in a skin illness.  In addition, the lack of a toilet in her cell forces her to go to the bathroom in a manner that offends her human dignity.

The IACHR asked the State to provide the appropriate medical attention to Lucía Pineda and to facilitate her access to her legal representatives and visits from her family, given these have been limited to date.

Lucía Pineda is one of at least 60 female political prisoners being held by the government of Nicaragua.  It is estimated that 765 people have been incarcerated for demanding justice and democracy from Nicaraguan authorities.

Antecedentes

Since governmental repression began against protesting citizens in April 2018, Canal 100% Noticias has denounced the ongoing violence in the country.  Lucía Pineda, as the Director of Communications for the media outlet, gained visibility for her journalistic work on the program 100% Entrevistas [100% Interviews], which in turn exposed her to threats, attacks, and even a campaign against her aimed at stigmatizing her.

On December 21 of last year, several weapons-wielding police patrols broke into the offices of the TV outlet 100% Noticias at night.  In the operation, they dismantled and removed journalistic equipment and illegally detained the channel’s director, Miguel Mora, his wife, journalist Verónica Chávez, and Pineda.  All of them were transferred to the Dirección de Auxilio Judicial [Directorate of Judicial Aid] (DAJ) and it was not until 72 hours later that the authorities informed their relatives as to their whereabouts.  During that time, Chávez was released.

Mora and his relatives had received precautionary measures from the IACHR just eight days before his detention, as did journalist Leticia Gaitán.  The latter had to flee the country to guarantee her personal freedom.

On the same day as Mora and Pineda were detained, the Instituto Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones y Correos [Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Mail] (TELCOR) suspended the TV outlet.  To date, the [TV channel’s] offices remain broken into, shuttered, and guarded by police agents, while the [channel’s] frequency was awarded to another TV channel.

PRONOUNCEMENT: We embrace the attempts to resume dialogue in Nicaragua, though with guarantees that human rights will be respected

Washington, DC, February 18, 2018 – Last Saturday, the government of Nicaragua met with businesspersons from national banking institutions and agroindustry, with the following individuals serving as witnesses: Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua, and Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, Apostolic Nuncio.  As reported by the government itself, said meeting confirmed “the need to reach an understanding, in order to commence negotiation, through an inclusive, serious, and frank encounter.”  The businesspersons, for their part, called on all sectors of Nicaraguan society to decisively support possible new negotiations with the government.

Between May and June of last year, the Nicaraguan government initiated a national dialogue, with the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua serving as the mediator and the Alianza Cívica por la Justicia y la Democracia [Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy] as a counterpart.  Nonetheless, it was canceled due to the government’s refusal to cease the repression against the Nicaraguan people.

The International Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race & Equality) believes it is essential to resume the national dialogue between the government of Nicaragua and broad sectors of civil society in order to find a solution to the profound ongoing human rights crisis that in many respects has become more acute after 10 months.

Since April 18, 2018, the repression of antigovernment protests has resulted in at least 325 people killed, more than 2,000 injured, around 50,000 people compelled to flee the country as refugees, and more than 700 men and women currently imprisoned for calling for justice for the victims of the repression and respect for democracy.

In recent months, the authorities have aimed their repressive tactics at human rights defenders, women, journalists, independent news media, and civil society organizations in order to dismantle all spaces for criticism.

In light of these circumstances, Race & Equality believes it is critical, in order to restart the national dialogue, for the Nicaraguan government to send clear signals of complying with its national and international human rights commitments, among which we highlight the following:

  • Immediately cease the repression and arbitrary detentions of the Nicaraguan populace.
  • Nullify the trials of and immediately release all political prisoners.
  • Authorize the return to the country of the Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua (MESENI) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), as well as the mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), which were expelled from the country last year.

We have observed with concern how the apprehension of citizens has continued in various part of the country and that the judicial machinery does not stop imposing hundreds of years of prison, failing to respect the guarantees of due process.  Neither of these behaviors nourish in any manner the fostering of a favorable environment for dialogue.

Race & Equality strongly believes that an inclusive dialogue is the only solution to the Nicaraguan crisis: a dialogue that nourishes the respect for human rights, truth, justice, and reparations for the victims.

*Photo of Oscar Navarrete taken by La Prensa newspaper.

Political Prisoners in Nicaragua: Three Campesinos Sentenced to 216, 210, and 159 Years in Prison

Washington, DC, February 18, 2019 – Medardo Mairena and Pedro Mena, two leaders of the Movimiento Campesino [Campesino Movement] arrested in July for demanding justice and democracy from the government of Nicaragua after the brutal governmental repression of civic protests, were sentenced today to 216 and 210 years in jail, sentences that are considered excessive for defendants in Nicaragua, given that life sentences do not exist in that country and the maximum sentence permitted under the [Nicaraguan] Constitution is 30 years.

The campesinos had been declared guilty on December 17, 2018 of the crimes of terrorism, organized crime, assassination, simple kidnapping, robbery, and hindering public services.  The defense lawyers who represented the campesinos, as well as experts in this field, viewed it as the end of a trial lacking guarantees, filled with contradictions, false witnesses, and evidence tampering.

According to local media, the sentence was announced by Judge Edgard Altamirano of the Ninth Criminal Trial District of Managua, who additionally sentenced a third campesino by the name of Luis Pineda Icabalzeta to 159 years in prison.

In December, a fourth defendant named Silvio Saúl Pineda Bonilla was declared not guilty of the crimes of which he had been accused.

The lawyer defending Mairena and Mena, Julio Montenegro of the Comisión Permanente de Derechos Humanos [Permanent Commission on Human Rights] (CPDH), declared last December to local media that Judge Altamirano “had the ruling already prepared,” which he read immediately following the closing arguments.

Mairena, Mena, and Pineda are some of the more than 760 political prisoners recorded by the Comité Pro Liberación de Presos y Presas Políticas de Nicaragua [Committee in Favor of Freeing Nicaraguan Political Prisoners] up through February of this year.  These three campesinos bring the total to more than 140 political prisoners who have already been sentenced.  Their crime, affirm their relatives, has been to protest with the flag of Nicaragua in their hands.

Who are they?

Mairena represented campesinos in the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy, a group of citizens, students, businesspersons, and activists who participated in the National Dialogue with the Government to seek a way out of the socio-political and human rights crisis that by May had left 56 dead. As of this writing, State repression has left at least 325 dead, more than 2,000 people injured, and more than 50,000 who have sought refuge in Costa Rica.

In addition, Medardo was the coordinator of the National Council in Defense of the Land, the Lake, and Sovereignty, a group of campesinos who have fought since 2014 for the repeal of Law 840 that grants a Chinese company permission to build and operate an interoceanic canal that would destroy dozens of rural communities in Nicaragua.

Mena also belonged to the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy, serving as an advisor to Mairena, and was part of the campesino movement opposed to the canal project.

According to the Public Prosecutor’s accusation, quoted by the newspaper La Prensa, Medardo Mairena was the head of a “criminal group” that guided the creation of roadblocks in Boaco, Chontales, Nueva Guinea, and Río San Juan to prevent the normal operation of transportation and commit various crimes. In addition, he is accused of being the mastermind of the murder of five police officers and a civilian in the municipality of Morrito, in Río San Juan on July 12, 2018.

Although Medardo Mairena openly supported the creation of barricades or roadblocks, they were actually installed by the campesino movement, students, and citizens throughout the country as a form of civic protest against governmental repression. Residents of Morrito, according to the digital media outlet Confidencial, attribute the assassinations to parapolice officers allied with the government who attacked a peaceful march that same day. Relatives of Mairena and Mena say they are being criminalized for actively participating in demonstrations against the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, as well as for the public demands for justice and democracy that were issued as a result of acts of repression committed since April 2018.

Detention

Medardo Mairena and Pedro Mena were at the Augusto C. Sandino International Airport in Managua when they were arrested on July 13 without an arrest warrant. From there, the police took them to the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), better known as “El Chipote” [The Smack].

The police issued a statement announcing that they had arrested Mairena “when he tried to flee the country.” The campesino leader’s brother, Alfredo Mairena, assured Confidencial that Medardo and Pedro were heading to Los Angeles, United States for a meeting in solidarity with the campesino movement. The police did not explain why they had also arrested Mena.

The police statement directly labeled Medardo “a terrorist” and “leader” of a criminal organization.

Judicial process

Four days after their arrest, a judge in Managua held a preliminary hearing against Mairena and Mena behind closed doors, according to the newspaper La Prensa. Following this hearing, the two leaders were transferred to the La Modelo [The Model] Prison System, where they have been continuously tortured. On July 25, the director of the CPDH, Marcos Carmona, denounced that the leaders were being beaten continuously by a prison official known as “El Chacal” [The Jackal].

After an initial hearing on August 15, the trial of Medardo, Mena, and Pineda was rescheduled three times and finally held on November 13. The defense alleged a “delay of justice,” and during those months of waiting, the torture and inhuman and degrading treatment continued.

Julio Montenegro commented on November 6 to journalists that since the campesino leaders were transferred to La Modelo, they remained in a cell known as “El Infiernillo” [The Hotplate], a small space with little ventilation and no light. In addition, he reported that the presence of insects, scorpions, cockroaches, and mosquitos was continuous, and the food provided was “wretched.”

After nine days of trial, the process concluded on December 17 with a ruling of criminal responsibility issued against the three campesinos. Neither the delegates of the Special Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua (MESENI, for its initials in Spanish) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) nor Nicaraguan human rights organizations were allowed to attend any of the hearings, despite the fact that Nicaraguan law establishes that hearings must be open to the public.

The tests and witnesses

CPDH lawyer Julio Montenegro confirmed on December, during a press conference, that no evidence presented by the Office of the Public Prosecutor – whether images, audio, or video – demonstrated overwhelmingly that Medardo Mairena had directed any actions against the police or that he had organized barricades or roadblocks.

Furthermore, Montenegro said the video that purported to be the most important evidence held by the prosecutors was in fact a sequence of three different scenes that “do not fit together.” “In the first scene, Medardo is on a cobblestone street with a group of people with blue and white flags; the second one is spliced together with a group of people who are in a crosswalk carrying red and black flags; and the third image shows a pitched battle in which Medardo Mairena does not appear.”

There were also serious contradictions among several of the 45 witnesses presented by the Prosecutor’s Office, all of whom were public officials. “One of the witnesses was made to read what he was going to declare from a giant screen,” Montenegro said.

On the ninth day of the trial, the Mairena and Mena defense presented three witnesses and a video that revealed that the day of the incidents in Morrito, Mairena was participating in a march in Managua.

Montenegro said back in December that he would file an appeal, wherein he will first question the validity of the trial due to innumerable anomalies in the process.

*A prior version of this article on December 19, 2018 was published when the campesinos were declared guilty.  This new version has been updated with the sentences they were given.

Main photo taken from El19Digital Website

The International Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race & Equality) views the sentencing of Medardo Mairena and Pedro Mena, as well as the detention and irregular trials of those accused in the protests of April 2018 and subsequent months, as part of the response of the Nicaraguan government to the civic protests that began eight months ago.

The above was characterized by the OHCHR in its Report “Violations of Human Rights and Abuses” as follows:

“The overall response of the authorities to the protests did not meet the applicable standards for the proper management of demonstrations, in violation of international human rights law . . .”

In addition, the trials, sentences, and persecution and repression now prevailing in Nicaragua targeting various sectors must be assessed by taking into account what has been said by the OHCHR in its aforementioned report:

“Instead of recognizing any responsibility for the social catastrophe, the government has blamed social and opposition leaders, human rights defenders, and the media for what it has termed ‘coup violence,’ the negative impact of the political crisis on the national economy, and the 197 deaths that have been officially recognized…”

Race & Equality calls for the immediate release of political prisoners and for the State of Nicaragua to accept its responsibility for the violence unleashed by the authorities that has left at least 325 people dead, including 24 children. Race & Equality calls on the State of Nicaragua to ensure truth, justice, and reparation for the victims.

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