President Daniel Ortega’s government has been criticized for targeting dissidents and consolidating power.
Human rights group Amnesty International has warned that the governments of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo are deepening a crackdown on the Central American country.
In a report released on Tuesday, the group said the government had committed abuses such as arbitrary detention, torture and the deprivation of citizenship of dissidents.
“We have shown the ongoing repression in Nicaraguan society and the different forms of human rights abuses suffered by those who speak out,” Erica Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s director for the Americas, said in a news release. “release.
Ortega’s government has been accused of consolidating power and suppressing dissent since April 2018, when anti-austerity protests against cuts to social security benefits were met with a harsh government response that saw hundreds killed and detained.
Our report explains the main tactics the government uses to silence any critical voices — the use of excessive force, the use of criminal laws to unfairly criminalize dissent, attacks on civil society, and forced exile.
Come out now 👇 https://t.co/ww6NOH5ahc
– Amnesty International (@amnesty) April 18, 2023
The government continues to “expand and reinvent” this style of repression through various means, including the use of excessive force, attacks on civil society groups and the use of the judiciary to target opponents, the report said.
Kay Taylor, professor of global studies at UC Santa Barbara, told Al Jazeera that the crackdown in Nicaragua has contributed to a regional trend of declining democratic freedoms, which has also affected neighboring countries such as El Salvador and Guatemala.
“Ortega and Murillo’s ability to consolidate authoritarian regimes and hold on to power despite brutal repression and international pressure can only reassure other leaders that they have no fear in continuing to dismantle democracies or persecute opponents,” Seiler said. Speaking in response to written questions.
Amnesty International said in its report on Tuesday that Ortega’s government had “chosen” the justice system “to try people unfairly simply because they are perceived to be critical of the government”.
In February, a Nicaraguan court revoked the citizenship of 94 exiled dissidents, a move declared illegal by the United Nations refugee agency.
“International law prohibits arbitrary deprivation of nationality, including on racial, ethnic, religious or political grounds,” the agency said in a news conference at the time.
The decision came shortly after the government deported 222 political prisoners and sent them to the United States, forcing them into exile.
Civil society organizations, human rights activists and independent media have also suffered harassment, loss of legitimacy and police raids, according to the report.
Ortega first came to the presidency in 2007 but has been a central figure in Nicaraguan politics for decades. He was the leader of the left-wing Sandinista rebel group that overthrew the US-backed Somoza dictatorship in 1979.
However, Ortega is now accused of many of the same crimes as Somoza: torture, enforced disappearance and extermination of political opponents.
Last year, a former Sandinista leader and would-be presidential candidate named Hugo Torres died in prison at the age of 73 after being arrested along with several opposition politicians.
Early in their battle as rebels against the Somoza government, Torres had led a daring raid to free Ortega from prison.
