Nicaragua’s government has been “expanding its repression of perceived opponents far beyond its own borders,” the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) said Sept. 23 in releasing a new report from a group of experts. The report, which was presented to the UNHRC in Geneva, documents government targeting of thousands of Nicaraguans abroad, including the denial of passports, digital surveillance and threats. How much is the human rights situation in Nicaragua, and the conditions for Nicaraguans abroad, worsening, and why? What is the state of the opposition to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega? To what extent are international actors, including the United States, focused on Nicaragua, and why?
Juanita Goebertus Estrada, director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch: “Nicaragua’s repression has increasingly extended beyond its borders. At home, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have consolidated one-family rule through constitutional changes that concentrate power in the executive. Authorities have stripped critics of nationality and assets and dismantled civic space—more than 5,500 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and dozens of media outlets have been shut down since 2018. As of August, a human rights organization reported that there are at least 73 political prisoners. Abroad, as U.N. experts reported in September, government critics face surveillance, intimidation and, in some cases, violent attacks. Since February 2023, at least 452 people have been arbitrarily stripped of their nationality, leaving many stateless and dispossessed. More than 386,000 Nicaraguans have sought asylum abroad, primarily in Costa Rica and the United States. The June killing of Roberto Samcam, a retired army major and outspoken critic, in Costa Rica shows that exile is not protection. Sustained international attention has been lacking. In April, the U.N. Human Rights Council renewed the mandate of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua for two more years. The U.N. Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua had previously found reasonable grounds to believe that the authorities have committed crimes against humanity. The United States, European Union, United Kingdom and Canada have imposed targeted sanctions, but competing crises and abusive U.S. migration policies—such as ongoing deportation flights and the recent termination of Temporary Protected Status—send a dangerous message that geopolitics takes precedence over protection of Nicaraguans, leaving them exposed.”
Arturo McFields, former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States: “Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo always push the boundaries. Just when you think there’s nothing worse, something worse happens. The latest are the forced disappearances and the subsequent return of the dead bodies of those who had disappeared. There is also concern about transnational crimes. Exiles see how the tyrant’s criminal hand knows no borders. Roberto Samcam is one of the most recent cases, but not the only one. Abroad, the opposition lacks documents, legal status or employment. Despite this, they continue to fight for the return of democracy to our country, but it is an uphill battle. In Nicaragua, the opposition exists, but it is silenced and censored. This allows the regime to sell an image of false normality. Nicaragua’s main opposition is Murillo. Nothing weakens or damages the dictatorship more than the co-dictator herself. She persecutes and imprisons powerful Sandinistas from the past, as well as active and retired military personnel. The United States, and especially the Trump administration, could have a greater influence in Nicaragua. Ortega and Murillo would be willing to concede more if very specific demands or changes are presented. However, the U.S. Congress has not addressed the situation in Nicaragua or prepared any kind of legislation on the regime for some time. Even D.C. think tanks aren’t talking much about Nicaragua. Perhaps the opposition needs to do more to put the country on the agenda once again..”
Eric Jacobstein, senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue and former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs: “Repression in Nicaragua has reached unprecedented levels, with Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega carrying out extraterritorial human rights abuses that mirror the brutal tactics of Vladimir Putin. The Ortega-Murillo regime has imprisoned or expelled its entire opposition from the country, erasing any remaining political space. Murillo, in maneuvering for a succession plan that would keep her and her family in power, has been especially ruthless in targeting perceived enemies within her own ranks. A striking example was her persecution of Humberto Ortega, Daniel Ortega’s brother and a former Sandinista defense minister, who died at a military hospital following his house arrest last year. While the recent U.N. Group of Experts report was a welcome step, world leaders have fallen short in giving the Nicaraguan people the urgent support they deserve by taking a stronger stance against the regime’s human rights abuses. The Trump administration has sharply focused on Cuba and Venezuela, but beyond a series of visa restrictions on Ortega-Murillo regime officials in April, its approach thus far to the Nicaraguan government’s heinous human rights record has been less clear. On the migration front, President Trump’s decision to strip legal protections from Nicaraguans in the United States—ending Temporary Protected Status and the parole programs for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV)—will force thousands to face deportations to a country where they risk persecution, abuse or death. Of course, the United States should not be expected to carry the burden of accountability alone. Latin American and European leaders must also step up and confront the Ortega-Murillo regime, treating Nicaragua as the pariah state it has become..”
Jennie Lincoln, senior advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean at The Carter Center: “Nicaragua has experienced much more authoritarianism in the past 100 years than democracy. The Sandinista revolution of 1979 that brought the end to the Somoza dynasty was celebrated throughout the hemisphere. U.S. President Jimmy Carter received Daniel Ortega and others in the Rose Garden at the White House. The dictatorship was dead. Unfortunately, the euphoria did not last. The ‘muchachos’ had been supported by the business sector, civil society and the international community. But the Sandinista government turned to Cuba and the Soviet Union for support that in 1990 did not hold up the democratic election of Violeta Chamorro. Democracy ruled for almost two decades. But Ortega’s return to power in 2007 led to a political label of ‘Ortega/Somoza = la misma cosa’ (the same thing). Actually, Ortega (now co-president with wife, Rosario Murillo) is worse. OrMu (Ortega-Murillo) controls the military and all institutions under a new constitution with no ‘presidential’ term limits. They have imprisoned or exiled opposition voices and threatened the families of anyone left behind. The freedom to assemble is tightly controlled. Universities and NGOs have been dismantled and confiscated. Independent media has relocated to outside the country to be able to operate. Citizens who travel outside Nicaragua risk not being allowed back in. Hundreds have been stripped of citizenship and suffer statelessness. The opposition is struggling to confront the dictatorship from the outside, but the vicious repression extends beyond Nicaragua’s borders. When will the international community hold OrMu accountable? Also, the United States is now deporting Nicaraguans..”
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