Banishment of Nicaraguans Denounced at Human Rights Court
The IACHR heard from victims and human rights organizations about the Ortega regime’s policy of banishment and denationalization.
HAVANA TIMES – A group of released political prisoners and human rights organizations spoke before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) to denounce the persistence of the Ortega regime’s policy of banishment and denationalization. This policy irreparably violates the victims’ rights.
During an audience held on February 4, 2025, the Court heard from several organizations that defend human rights. These groups petitioned the Court to maintain the provisional measures that have been in effect since 2021, in favor of 116 members of the Nicaraguan opposition who were at that time in prison. The dictatorship later released and banished the majority of them, then stripped them of their citizenship.
Among the organizations testifying were the Center for Justice and International Law, Raza e Igualdad [Race and Equality], the International Human Rights Federation, the Nicaragua Nunca Mas Human Rights Collective, and the Unidad de Defensa Juridica [United Legal Defense]. Together they represented 97 Nicaraguans who were under the protection of the Court measures. Eighty-eight of them have been banished and stripped of their nationality; fifty-five of them are currently stateless; seven are still imprisoned; one is in voluntary exile; and one is in forced disappearance.
“The systematic and generalized government policy of banishment, denationalization, and deprivation of rights that affected those benefited by the provisional measures has seriously deepened the risks they and their families currently face,” declared Maria Luisa Gomez from Raza e Igualdad.
Most of the individuals were part of the two massive deportations that the Ortega-Murillo regime carried out. The first group was sent to the United States in 2023; and the second, in 2024, to Guatemala. They were all then declared traitors to the homeland, and were stripped of their nationality, thus terminating their citizens’ rights forever under Nicaraguan law.
Those still in prison and one disappeared
The organizations that participated in the hearing also denounced that those opposition members who remain locked up don’t have adequate access to water or health care and are subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment. In addition, they warned that journalist Catalino Leo Carcamo, a beneficiary of the provisional measures, has been in forced disappearance since November 2024.
The organizations further denounced the confiscation of property and bank accounts belonging to these individuals who have received provisional protective measures.
During the hearing, the absence of the Nicaraguan government was regretfully noted, since they did not send any representative. This amounts to a failure to comply with “the duty to report to the Tribunal, as the Court determined in their Resolution of November 22, 2021.”
“Nicaragua continues in permanent contempt for the orders of the Tribunal, which prolongs the beneficiaries’ utter vulnerability and increases the risks they find themselves exposed to,” Camilo Ormar of the Center for Justice and International Law, lamented.
“Our banishment was an act of cruelty”
“The suffering during my forced disappearance for the first three months of my captivity – suffering that was exacerbated by the exile of my wife and daughter, who had been forced to leave Nicaragua a week after my disappearance – leads me to reiterate the relevance and urgent need for protection,” declared Juan Sebastian Chamorro, a released political prisoner who was banished by the dictatorship in February 2023.
Chamorro asserted that his release from prison and expulsion from the country, followed by the loss of his nationality and confiscation of all his assets, “have caused me profound anguish, not very different for that produced by the inhumane conditions of my 611 days in prison.”
“Our banishment wasn’t a decision of free will, but a cruel act of violation that separated and continues separating families. We the banished didn’t choose to live in the places we are now – we were forced to. The situation of abandonment of our sisters and brothers banished to Guatemala is the most recent example,” he pointed out.
During their testimony, Chamorro, as well as released prisoner Evelyn Pinto, indicated that the arbitrary stripping of their nationality has triggered the systematic violation of all rights inherent to citizenship.
“Our erasure from the civil registries is a violation that leaves us powerless and exposed to dangers. The dissolution of marriage records causes problems for our children, and being without identification documents keeps us from realizing even the most basic transactions,” declared Chamorro.
For her part, Evelyn Pinto denounced the deterioration in her health due to her imprisonment. “I suffer pain in the joints, which lowers my quality of life,” she insisted. The human rights advocate revealed that her economic situation had forced her to leave the United States. She is currently seeking asylum in Costa Rica, since the Nicaraguan government cut off her retirement pension.
“At my age, without a retirement pension, I have to seek work, and even though I haven’t succeeded yet, I’m continuing in that battle,” declared Pinto, who is 66 years old.
Many more are also stateless
The NGOs asked the Inter-American Court to maintain the provisional measures ordering the [Nicaraguan] government to protect the life and integrity of the victims, restore their nationality and confiscated assets, and free those still in prison for political reasons.
The IACHR also heard from Ariela Peralta, member of the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua. Peralta explained that at least 453 Nicaraguans have been deprived of their citizenship, and that the actual number could be greater, since there may be victims who have remained unreported.
“The arbitrary deprivation of their nationality for 453 people who are either dissenters or perceived as such, constitutes a crime against humanity – that of persecution for political motives. It demonstrates the government’s intention to continue punishing their real or perceived opponents and their families wherever they are, and to instill terror of reprisals that could be taken for any action,” Ariela Peralta noted.
The representative from the Group of Experts recalled that the recently approved Constitutional reform in Nicaragua establishes the deprivation of nationality as punishment for those declared traitors to the homeland.
The Nicaraguan government, which sent no representatives to this hearing, was declared in contempt by the IACHR in 2022, for refusing to comply with the provisional measures of this case.
The repression is transnational
The organizations indicated that the Nicaraguan regime headed by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo is still persecuting political opponents, or those perceived as such, “not only inside the country, but also outside.”
“Impunity is the norm in Nicaragua, and despite the self-censorship generated by the repressive system, the regime continues persecuting, banishing, harassing, and threatening,” they accused.
They mentioned that the dictatorship has carried out a series of legal reforms in the fields of criminal law, criminal processing, immigration and telecommunications, “to consolidate the police state and establish a legal framework that allows them to justify the persecution both inside and outside Nicaragua.”
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.