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

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.

More than 60 female political prisoners have been subjected to different forms of violence in Nicaragua

February 14th, 2019. Around 68 female political prisoners of the Government of Nicaragua are facing different forms of violence, including violation of guarantees of due process, cruel and inhuman treatment, discrimination, sexual violence, lack of medical attention, threats, and harassment. This situation was denounced yesterday by representatives of civil society during the private hearing “Human Rights Situation of Women Deprived of Liberty in Nicaragua,” held in Bolivia during the 171st session of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR).

Among the speakers during the private audience were representatives of the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality), the Center for Health Information and Advisory Services (CISAS, for its initials in Spanish) and the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH, for its initials in Spanish). The latter two organizations had their legal status arbitrarily invalidated by the Nicaraguan Assembly, which has left the victims of the repression that these organizations attended defenselessness.

Due to a lack of information from authorities, there are no official figures on the numbers of female political prisoners in Nicaragua. However, data collected by the Nicaraguan Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders (IN-Defensoras) and the Registration Commission of the Blue and White National Unity (UNAB, for its initials in Spanish), suggest that 102 women have been arbitrarily arrested by police and paramilitaries since the protests against the government began 10 months ago. From that total, there is information that 68 woman are still detained. Of those, 40 are being prosecuted and 17 have already been convicted with sentences ranging from 6 months to 40 years of prison.

Additionally, 26 women are detained in the La Esperanza women’s prison, three are under house arrest and the rest are detained in the Judicial Assistance Department (DAJ, for its initials in Spanish), better known as ‘El Chipote,’ or in departmental police delegations.

Inhuman and degrading treatment

“La Esperanza penitentiary has been a cell of isolation and punishment. The blackmail, verbal abuse, and even physical abuse in some cases have been recurrent by the prison authorities,” the mother of one of the political prisoners said during the audience. She added that “inside (the prison) they are totally isolated from the rest of female inmates and they are treated as if they have a disease.”

Ana Quirós, director of CISAS, also pointed out that the 26 female political prisoners detained in La Esperanza are jammed into two cells that were originally designed for 8 prisoners each, which have a single bathroom.

According to Quirós, all the female political prisoners “live with permanent anxiety, facing threats and receiving constant visits by armed men with dogs” as a means of intimidation. In addition, many times they are taken out of the penitentiary without being informed where they are being taken, “so they live with the fear of being disappeared.”

Sexual violence

Another manifestation of repression committed by the authorities and mainly directed towards women is sexual violence. Quirós explained that the female political prisoners have been forced to strip naked and perform squats in front of their male captors, have been victims of inappropriate and obscene contact, have received threats of rape, and have been raped with penetration. All of the above situations have been used as a method of torture to obtain information or to force the woman to film incriminating videos against opposition leaders.

Restrictions on health

The prison authorities have also denied medical care and access to medical treatment to inmates with health issues such as depression and anxiety, infections due to overcrowding and poor hygiene conditions, migraines, gastritis and hypertension.

“There are some woman with more serious problems and whose treatment is urgent, such as Ruth Matute, who has a congenital heart disease; Brenda Muñoz, who suffers from hepatic and renal polycystic disease; and Delmis Portocarrero, who has lupus erythematosus and hypertension,” Quirós told the representatives of the IACHR.

She also mentioned other cases such as that of Mercedes Chavarría, who has paralysis of half of her body; Ana Hooker, who has only one kidney and as a result suffers from hypertension, fluid retention and hypothermia; and the case of Irlanda Jerez, who suffers from heart problems and had a mitral valvuloplasty.

Discrimination against LGBTI people

A representative of a Nicaraguan organization that promotes the rights of the LGBTI population  denounced that as of today, there are three transgender women who are detained in male prisons, including the students Victoria Obando and Kysha López.

“These women have been denied their right to gender identity, relegating them to prisons for men where they suffer discrimination, harassment, violence, and torture; and where they’re forced to undress in front of hundreds of men in the prison. They are shouted by the officials of the penitentiary system that ‘there are only virile man’ in there,” the activist exposed.

Violations of due process

Ana Bolaños, a lawyer at Race and Equality, pointed out the violations of the due process rights of the political prisoners in Nicaragua.

Women “have been arrested without arrest warrants, without charges by the Public Prosecutor’s Office or any lawsuits against them,” said Bolaños, adding that after their arrest, the prisoners are illegally remitted in their capacity as detainees to the cells of ‘El Chipote in Managua, where they have been subjected to extensive and repeated interrogations and different forms of violence.

“These actions have demonstrated the coordinated work among the organs that form the Criminal Justice System of Nicaragua, particularly the National Police, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary,” she stated.

More than 700 political prisoners

In addition to the 68 women deprived of liberty, the Registration Commission of the UNAB and the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners count 700 men who have been imprisoned in the context of the current crisis of human rights in that Central American country.

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

Nicaraguan Delegation Meets with United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet

The International Institute of Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race & Equality) facilitated a private meeting on February 1 between 10 representatives of Nicaraguan civil society organizations and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.

In the meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland, Nicaraguan human rights defenders presented a report detailing the grave state of human rights in the country following the persecution of activists, women, journalists, independent media outlets, youth, political prisoners, and human rights defenders by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

“We have met with the High Commissioner.  She listened to our requests and expressed her sincere concern regarding the situation in Nicaragua and her commitment to include and note the situation that is transpiring in all of her interventions and contribute in any way she can to bring about improvements in the conditions in the country,” affirmed Ana Quirós, the CISAS human rights defender who was recently arbitrarily thrown out of Nicaragua.  Likewise, Heydee Castillo, Director of the Instituto de Liderazgo de Las Segovias [Las Segovias Leadership Institute], said, “We were able to tell her verbally what we have experienced and what is being experienced by the people of Nicaragua, the levels of criminalization, violence, [and] crimes against humanity committed . . .”

Eight of the 10 civil society organizations present in the meeting have been arbitrarily censured by the current government following its decision to cancel their legal status in retaliation for complying with their missions and objectives: attending to the populace within the context of the Nicaraguan crisis.  It is thus that Luciano García of Hagamos Democracia [Let’s Build Democracy] expressed, “The most important thing was that we were able to bring her up-to-date in a timely manner regarding the abuses being committed by the regime against all Nicaraguans and all civil society organizations, and she [Michelle Bachelet] listened to our demands and is extremely concerned and surprisingly well-informed about the case of Nicaragua.”

One of the requests the representatives presented to Commissioner Bachelet related to asking the State of Nicaragua to stop the repression, persecution, and criminalization of the populace, human rights defenders, indigenous peoples, social [and] political leaders, and journalists.  They additionally called on the State to provide guarantees for the prompt and safe return to the country of the human rights defenders who were forced into exile as a result of the criminalization and prosecution, as well as the reinstatement of the arbitrarily-canceled (illegally withdrawn) legal status to human rights and civil society organizations.

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See here the document containing the requests presented to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Throughout the meeting, the High Commissioner displayed great sensitivity and commitment to the situation.  Anibal Toruño of Radio Darío noted that the meeting provided not only a space for them to discuss the national reality, but also a chance to find other partners with whom to promptly resolve the crisis.  “It was an encouraging moment: we received the full support of the High Commissioner.  A window, a hope, and of course, the possibility of finding partners who can help us resolve the crisis we are currently experiencing in Nicaragua.”

Mónica Baltonado, representative of Fundación Popol Na [Popol Na Foundation], emphasized how important it was to tell the Commissioner about the pain that is being inflicted not only on human rights defenders and activists, but also on the nation: “It is of transcendent importance for the Nicaraguan organizations as well as for the entire society.  First, because we were able to directly communicate to her the pain and suffering of the Nicaraguan people and the enormous concern we have, but above all, the sense of urgency to find a solution in the shortest period of time possible.”

Since April 2018, Nicaragua has been submerged in a grave human rights crisis that has become ever more acute, insomuch as the causes that provoked it have not been addressed, nor has the Nicaraguan people’s demand for justice and democracy been heeded.  In recent months the government has implemented a strategy of dismantling all spaces of criticism, while the violence is manifested in a more selective manner to target human rights defenders.  To date, the Nicaraguan government’s repressive actions have produced 325 assassinations, more than 2,000 injured individuals, 767 political prisoners, and more than 80,000 people have been forcibly displaced to Costa Rica.

Nicaraguan Delegation meets with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association

Washington, DC. January 28, 2019. Representatives of Nicaraguan civil society organizations met with the Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, Mr. Clement Nyaletsossy Voule, to apprise him of the persecution of organizations and their leaders by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo that has been ongoing since April 18 in the country.

The representatives of the organizations detailed to the Rapporteur the arbitrary nature of the cancelation of the legal status of nearly a dozen organizations with extensive experience in human rights defense and democracy, as well as the threats, assaults, and criminalization of human rights defense work faced by civil society leaders and their teams.

During the meeting, the Nicaraguan delegation asked the Rapporteur to speak to the Nicaraguan State about the arbitrary cancelation of the organizations’ legal status.  In addition, they detailed the need to demand that the State stop persecuting defenders, issue a public declaration condemning violations of the right to association, publicly recognize the work of defenders, and urge the State to permit the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council access to the country.

To that end, Rapporteur Nyaletsossy confirmed that he is monitoring the situation in the country [and] deems it very important to have the opportunity for spaces for exchange among different actors of civil society.  Likewise, he expressed an understanding of the suffering being generated by the situation in Nicaragua.

During the meeting, the representative of the United Nations noted that despite having made a request to the current government to visit the country, he had yet to receive an answer from the heads of State.

Lastly, the Rapporteur said he would undertake actions within the framework of the mandate of the Rapporteurship he heads.

International Organisations Establish International Observatory of the Human Rights Situation in Nicaragua

Americas/Europe, 16 January 2019. April 18, 2018 marked a watershet moment in the recent history of Nicaragua, with the outbreak of a political and social crisis that has seriously impacted the respect for and guarantee of human rights of the Nicaraguan people.

Nine months since the start of the human rights crisis, state repression against protesters, leaders, human rights organisations and social movements continues, placing the defence of human rights and social participation difficult to sustain. The government of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo has also been denying opportunities for international monitoring, which they had initially invited, such as the Follow-up Mechanism for the Situation in Nicaragua (MESENI) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, (IACHR) and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

According to the statement made by the executive secretary of the IACHR, Paulo Abrão, in his last presentation to the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), “the characteristics of state violence show that there was a decision by the State to use forces in such a way that involved the commission of multiple criminal acts against demonstrators and political opponents; specifically murder, imprisonment, persecution, rape, torture and, eventually, enforced disappearances.”

According to what has been documented by the IACHR, the escalation of violence has resulted in 325 people killed and more than 2000 people injured; 550 people detained and prosecuted; around 300 health professionals dismissed from their jobs; and the expulsion of at least 144 students from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN).

With the possibility of international observation terminated, the blocking of spaces for civil society organisations to monitor and follow up human rights violations, the criminalisation of human rights defenders (HRDs) and their organisations, the closure of civil society organisations and the increasing forced migration of thousands of people due to the political violence, the need to establish an international mechanism to observe the situation in the country is extremely urgent.

It is in this context that a group of international and regional human rights organisations have come together to
establish the International Observatory of the Human Rights Situation in Nicaragua, including: Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), Civicus- World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Urgent Action Fund-Latin America (FAU-AL), Front Line Defenders, Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF), EU -LAT Network , JASS – Just Associates, Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos (IMD), Brot für die Welt (Bread for the World), Plataforma Internacional contra la Impunidad, International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality), Unidad de protección a defensores y defensoras de Guatemala (UDEFEGUA) and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).

The Observatory is constituted by virtue of the crisis in Nicaragua, which makes it imperative that international civil society reinforce its work of documenting and monitoring the human rights situation in a coordinated and proactive manner.

 

Main photo: Carlos Herrera/Confidencial

OAS announces it will apply the Inter-American Democratic Charter to Nicaragua after learning that crimes against humanity have been committed in that country

Washington DC, December 28, 2018 – The Organization of American States (OAS) will begin the process of applying the Inter-American Democratic Charter to Nicaragua, declared Secretary-General Luis Almagro yesterday, after the Vice President of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR), Esmeralda Arosamena de Troitiño, presented a report produced by independent experts from various disciplines that reveals that actions committed by the State of Nicaragua against the peacefully-demonstrating population could be considered crimes against humanity.

Almagro explained that the application will begin with the convening of the Permanent Council, pursuant to Article 20 of the Charter, which establishes that when an alteration of the constitutional order occurs in any Member State that seriously impacts its democratic order, a collective assessment of the situation can be performed and related decisions adopted.

“We are required to begin the application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter to Nicaragua. The solution is still political and diplomatic, and we have the Inter-American regulatory instruments to address them,” Almagro said during an extraordinary session of the Permanent Council held in Washington, DC.

The Secretary-General of the OAS emphasized that at the beginning of the application of the Charter there is also an opportunity for the government of Nicaragua to reconsider its actions. Eight months after the beginning of the human rights and socio-political crisis in Nicaragua, at least 325 people have lost their lives as a result of the repression of demonstrators and more than 2,000 have been injured, according to the IACHR, while another 50,000 have had to flee the country and around 565 have been imprisoned.

During the last month, the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo launched a new escalation of repression against organizations defending human rights and media outlets by arbitrarily closing them and criminalizing journalists. Even the IACHR missions working in Nicaragua were expelled last week, accused of being “interventionist” and “biased.”

Under the current context of repression in Nicaragua, diplomatic representatives of several countries on the continent urged the Nicaraguan government to stop the repression and allow the return of the IACHR missions to the country; adhere to the recommendations of human rights experts; resume the national dialogue in a committed way; and reform the electoral system in order to hold early elections.

The United States of America, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile also requested the application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, whose ultimate consequence could be the suspension of Nicaragua’s right to participate in the OAS.

Paula Bertol, Argentina’s ambassador to the OAS, stressed that “the lack of democracy and freedom in Nicaragua” has been exposed in the experts’ reports, and that is the reason why “many of our States are thinking about applying the Democratic Charter.”  “Many of our States are also considering an extraordinary consultation meeting because we are worried about what is happening in Nicaragua, because we don’t want more people to die as a result of the abuse of State power,” she added.

The ambassador of Chile to the OAS, Jaime Francisco Alliende, also called for “a solution to the political crisis in Nicaragua to be developed according to the principles and values ​​of Inter-American instruments, including the Inter-American Democratic Charter,” maintaining that when faced with a rupture of the rule of law, “all OAS Member States must raise their voices to call upon that regime to accept a peaceful and democratic solution to this serious crisis.”

The Vice President of the IACHR also supported the activation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter against the Nicaraguan government: “The IACHR calls on the OAS Member States to reject violations of human rights and acts of repression against the Nicaraguan population, and to consider compliance with the conditions that make the Inter-American Democratic Charter applicable to the country,” Arosemena de Troitiño said.

Future actions

In his speech, the Secretary-General also explained that future actions the OAS will take include asking the IACHR to denounce the crimes documented in its report before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and to ask the Permanent Council to request a meeting with the Security Council of the United Nations (UN) to present them the report on crimes against humanity.

The latter action would also permit the UN Security Council to remit the investigation of these crimes to the International Criminal Court, an organ of justice of which Nicaragua is not currently a party.

“If crimes against humanity continue to be committed, we will ask the States Parties of the OAS, as well as all democratic States, that under the concept of ‘universal justice,’ the officials appointed as instructors and executors in the experts’ report be detained and tried in their respective territories for these crimes, thus activating universal justice,” Almagro warned.

The ambassador of Nicaragua to the OAS, Luis Alvarado, ignored the report presented in the OAS and accused several countries of being “interventionist” and “biased” for requesting justice and democracy for Nicaragua. He also affirmed that Almagro did not deserve to be the Secretary-General of the OAS, an organization that he tried to disqualify by using the words of the late Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, describing it as a “Ministry of the Colonies.”  The representative of Venezuela was the only one to openly endorse Alvarado’s speech.

The report of the GIEI

In its final report drafted after six months of work in the Central American country, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) determined that “the State of Nicaragua has engaged in conduct which, in accordance with international law, must be considered crimes against humanity,” according to what was made known by the IACHR experts last week.

The report, presented in Washington, DC two days after the group was expelled from Nicaragua by the authorities, indicates that the crimes committed with the consent of the highest levels of the Nicaraguan government, were assassinations, incarceration, persecution, rape, torture, and forced disappearance.

The foregoing was affirmed following an arduous process of collecting information through direct interviews with relatives of victims and surviving victims, visits to and observations conducted in locations where the violent incidents occurred, meetings with journalists, examination of documents such as videos, photographs, and material from [traditional] media and social media. The State refused to provide them with information, despite the fact that the authorities had accepted that the GIEI’s primary mission was to assist the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Nicaragua to clarify the violent incidents that occurred at the beginning of the crisis.

The experts found that between April 18 and May 30, at least 109 people were assassinated and another 1,400 were wounded as a result of a “generalized and systematic attack against the civilian population” that was demonstrating against the government.

“The clearest and most serious pattern of behavior consisted of the use of firearms, including weapons of war, directly against people who participated in protest actions,” the report states, pointing to the National Police as the force in command of this conduct, which was accompanied in its actions by parastatal armed groups with the support of local political authorities.

For this same reason, GIEI recommends investigating President Ortega as being responsible for these events, in his capacity as supreme commander of the National Police.

Another human rights violation described in the GIEI report is the State of Nicaragua’s violation of its duty to ensure due diligence in the investigation of the violent deaths that occurred between April 18 and May 30, 2018.

“Out of 109 cases of violent deaths registered by GIEI, only nine have been prosecuted, which means that 100 still remain shrouded in impunity,” said Claudia Paz y Paz during the presentation of the report.

Even so, in the nine cases that have been prosecuted, six relate to victims with some relationship to the State of Nicaragua or government party. “In no case have trials begun against State security forces, despite the various evidence that indicates their possible responsibility,” the Guatemalan expert lamented.

 

Main photo: Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS.

Missions of the IACHR in Nicaragua expelled by the government

Washington D.C., December 20, 2018. Two missions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Nicaragua tasked with monitoring human rights violations and helping the authorities to clarify the violent events that transpired in April and May 2018 during the beginning of massive demonstrations left Nicaragua yesterday after the government suspended their visit and forced them to leave the country.

The expulsion of the Special Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua (MESENI, for its initials in Spanish), which arrived in the country on June 24, 2018, and the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI, for its initials in Spanish), which began its work in Nicaragua on July 2, 2018 – both in response to recommendations presented by the IACHR in the report “Serious Violations of Human Rights in the Context of the Social Protests in Nicaragua” – occurred a day before GIEI presented a report on their six months of work, and eight months after the beginning of the human rights crisis caused by the brutal governmental repression of citizen protests that has left at least 325 people dead, more than 2,000 injured, and around 565 political prisoners.

The government’s resolution also prevents Special Rapporteurs and officials of the IACHR from conducting a series of visits that were already scheduled for the first quarter of 2019.

“The most affected [by the expulsion] are the victims and their relatives, because the main value of our work is to be able to bring the victims closer to the truth and justice. That is our deepest regret,” MESENI Coordinator Ana María Tello declared moments after learning of the authorities’ decision.

A MESENI report published Wednesday morning warned of “the intensification of a fourth stage of State repression” characterized, among other things, by the staggering of repressive measures and actions aimed at weakening the role played by human rights defenders and civil society organizations and the arbitrary expulsion or threat of expulsion of naturalized persons or permanent residents due to their participation in protests.

Months before, on August 31st, the government of Nicaragua expelled a mission of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) shortly after it presented a report on the serious human rights violations committed by State forces within the context of the protests.

The reasons

Members of MESENI and the four GIEI experts – Sofia Macher, Claudia Paz y Paz, Amérigo Incalcaterra, and Pablo Parenti – attended a meeting on Wednesday with Foreign Minister Denis Moncada, during which he informed them of the unilateral governmental decision.

The letter Moncada read to the IACHR officials, later published by pro-government media, stated that the missions had not met their objectives and that “the IACHR, MESENI, GIEI, and OHCHR have become a platform for disseminating false information to promote international sanctions” against Nicaragua. In addition, it notes that the members of the GIEI did not respond to a counterproposal from the government on its Protocol of Action and that, therefore, they carried out “a series of actions in violation of the terms of the agreement” and national laws.

Incalcaterra later explained that the non-compliance with the Protocol of Action alleged by Moncada is “false” because all State communications were answered by the experts. “[The authorities] have not demanded that GIEI behave differently or that the our work be done in a specific way,” he alleged, instead denouncing that they never were given access to judicial files, official information that would allow them to fully comply with their mandate, or judicial hearings, even though the latter are public according to Nicaraguan law.

“The reasons they have given us do not satisfy us in any way.  We think those are arguments that have been developed, in the specific case of GIEI, so as to prevent us from presenting the report on our six months of work that was scheduled for tomorrow,” the expert added, also declining to provide details of the report, in light of the fact that the authorities had “suggested” he not do so in Nicaragua.

MESENI’s Tello also explained to local journalists that her mission sent more than 70 diplomatic notes to the government to request information or meetings with authorities, and that none of them had been answered. “There was never pressure from the government because we did not have a dialogue with them,” she said.

They will continue monitoring

The work of the IACHR that began in April 2018 launched with a working visit May 17-21, after which the report “Serious Human Right Violations in the Context of Social Protests in Nicaragua” was published. Since then, MESENI has drafted dozens of weekly reports on its monitoring work; the IACHR has processed precautionary measures for more than 100 people; and various Special Rapporteurs of that regional human rights body have visited the country to evaluate the current situation.

In addition, the Executive Secretary of the IACHR, Paulo Abraõ, has discussed the situation of Nicaragua in diverse spaces, such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and United Nations Human Rights Council. The IACHR also included four public hearings on Nicaragua in its 170th Period of Sessions, the last of which was held on December 6, 2018.

Ana María Tello stressed that neither the IACHR nor MESENI will stop monitoring the human rights situation in Nicaragua, although now they will have to do so from Washington, DC. Furthermore, experts of the GIEI announced that they would release their report from Washington, DC.

“The IACHR reiterates that the situation in Nicaragua will continue to be a priority, reaffirms its commitment to the victims of human rights violations, and will continue to monitor compliance by the Nicaraguan State with the international human rights obligations it has voluntarily assumed,” the Commission declared in a recent statement.

The International Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race & Equality) condemns and rejects the decision of the State of Nicaragua to expel the Special Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua and the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

This arbitrary decision of the State of Nicaragua not only violates the agreements established with IACHR representatives, but also deepens the defenselessness of Nicaraguans at a time in which violence, criminalization, and harassment are intensifying against activists, human rights defenders, the media, and the general populace who dissent from the dictatorial regime.

We observe with concern a clear desire of the government to impose a state of terror in the country that violates the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international and regional human rights instruments.

We urgently call on the entire international community to continue to monitor the crisis in Nicaragua and press for the protection and guarantee of the Nicaraguan people’s human rights.

As an organization that promotes and defends human rights in the Americas, we reiterate our willingness and commitment to denounce and fight against all acts that undermine the chance to build democracy, justice, and freedom in Nicaragua.

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