Nine of Ortega’s Prisoners Are Under “Forced Disappearance”
“Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners” sees a “worsening” of the Ortega-Murillo regime’s repressive mechanisms.
HAVANA TIMES – Forced disappearances “continue worsening” in Nicaragua, according to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners. Up until September 2024, the organization identified nine people as unaccounted for, months after they were detained by police. Among them is indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera, formerly a deputy in the National Assembly, opposition leader Jaime Navarrete, and journalist Fabiola Tercero.
Other people in “forced disappearance” are: Eddie Moisés Gonzáles, Gerson Antonio Zeledón, Carmen María Sáenz, Lesbia Gutiérrez, Evelin Carolina Matus, y Domingo Antonio Munguía.
In all these cases, family members haven’t been able to see their loved ones for months, or even confirm their whereabouts or their state of health. The prisoners’ monitoring group highlighted these problems during their update of the current list of political prisoners, which – as of September 25 – numbers 45.
“The Nicaraguan regime continues using forced disappearance as a strategy to punish opponents. A clear example of this practice it the situation of the detained persons who are being denied the right to receive visits over prolonged periods of time – periods which can stretch from three to six or even nine months. Such restrictions serve not only to isolate the political prisoners, but also to inflict psychological punishment on their families,” they emphasized.
In their report, the “Mechanism” added that these actions constitute a grave human rights violation, especially the right not to be subjected to forced disappearance. They held the State responsible for the harm these prisoners may be suffering.
“This pattern not only affects the direct victims, but also generates a climate of fear and uncertainty among the general public,” they noted.
The nine prisoners considered “disappeared” are part of the 45 people, including forest rangers, indigenous leaders, political opponents of the regime, lay and religious leaders and public employees, that the Mechanism identifies as imprisoned for political reasons in Nicaragua. In many cases, their detention hasn’t been confirmed by the regime’s authorities.
Dictatorship vents their fury on the families
The prisoner monitoring group also warns that in the past few weeks the dictatorship has been merciless with the families of the 135 political prisoners who were released and banished on September 5th. The authorities have increased their social control and harassment of these families, including threats to confiscate the former prisoners’ properties in Nicaragua.
In September, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo banished a group of 135 political prisoners to Guatemala, “in an act that reflects the government’s strategy of utilizing these measures as a form of extreme political punishment,” the “Mechanism” report accuses.
Following the release and banishment of these political prisoners, the monitoring organization received information regarding threats and harassment aimed against the families still in the country, “which reveals a strategy of control and violence that has intensified over the last few years,” they note.
Nicaraguans “not only face arbitrary detentions and long prison sentences, but also, once prisoners are banished, stripped of their nationalities and under imminent threat of having their property confiscated, these people continue being victims of threats and acts of intimidation on the part of the police and the authorities, seriously violating their rights.”
Banishment and denationalization constitute serious infringements of human rights, since they violate the principles of international law, including those established in the American Convention on Human Rights and the Treaty against Statelessness.
The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights and the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua have both condemned these measures as crimes against humanity, stressing that they’ve been systematically used to silence the political opposition in Nicaragua.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.