Nicaraguan Women Denounce Government Intimidation
By EFE (100% Noticias)
HAVANA TIMES – Two of the best-known feminist groups in Nicaragua denounced Monday that squads of “police and paramilitaries” carried out “acts of intimidation” against them, while they were holding an assembly of women in Managua.
The Network of Women Against Violence and the organization Programa Feminista La Corriente, reported that on Saturday its members were victims of “acts of intimidation, harassment, perpetrated by [Daniel Ortega’s] police and paramilitaries.”
According to the complaint, the police and armed civilians, surrounded the women while the assembly was taking place. Upon leaving, many suffered detention, forced to show their ID and remove their masks for photographs.
“These acts added to the campaign of siege and systematic harassment that the Nicaraguan State mantains against human rights defenders and feminist organizations, as well as against journalists, political prisoners, released prisoners, and their families,” said the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders, in a statement in which they referred to this latest complaint.
Being a feminist and defending human rights is not a crime in Nicaragua. However, the groups that defend women are in conflict with the government of Daniel Ortega. They supported the massive anti-government demonstrations of 2018, repressed with armed attacks by police and paramilitaries, leaving many hundreds dead, missing and imprisoned.
The persecution is against several segments of the population
“We demand that the Nicaraguan government cease acts of intimidation, harassment, and persecution against defenders and feminist organizations. For decades they carry out the fundamental work to advance the rights of Nicaraguan women. They seek equality, to live violence-free and to decide over their bodies and lives,” said the Mesoamerican Initiative.
Youth groups, political opponents, students, doctors, peasants, priests, and businesspeople experience a situation like that of feminists. The Ortega regime imposed a Police State in September 2018, which is still in effect today. All citizen protest and the right to mobilize in public, or even meet privately, are persecuted.