Are Kidnapped Nicaraguan Indigenous Leaders Alive?
A United Nations expert requests proof of life
After his capture on September 29 by Daniel Ortega’s Police, human rights groups consider he has “disappeared,” along with his alternate deputy Nancy Enriquez.
HAVANA TIMES – After kidnapping Deputy Brooklyn Rivera and his alternate Nancy Rodriguez, both leaders of the indigenous party Yatama, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega refuses to give “proof of life” to the relatives of these political prisoners, as well as to human rights organizations of the UN Inter-American system.
“What is demanded is proof of life. However, the state of Nicaragua has not provided any further information to the Inter-American system or their relatives,” said Anexa Cunningham, a member of the experts’ mechanism on the rights of indigenous people at the United Nations.
Cunningham adds that almost a month and a half after Rivera’s kidnapping, “his physical condition is unknown. There is no word on where he is. His condition is of disappearance. He is missing because he has not been brought before a competent judge to tell him the reasons for which he has been detained,” emphasized the defender of the rights of indigenous peoples.
The whereabouts of the indigenous deputy Rivera has been a complete mystery since his capture by police officers at the service of Daniel Ortega on September 29th of this year in the Bilwi area, North Caribbean of Nicaragua.
The Sandinista Police has also been holding indigenous legislator Nancy Enriquez under arrest since October 1; hence, the United Nations and the Inter-American organizations have asked the Nicaraguan state to show the leaders.
For their part, human rights organizations in Costa Rica denounce that these indigenous deputies are denied their right to be represented by a lawyer.
Political prisoners in Nicaragua without the right to defense
“Indeed, this behavior is a pattern that the dictatorship has been implementing against political prisoners: denying the right to defense,” assures Eugenio Membreno, lawyer of the Permanent Commission of Human Rights in Costa Rica.
Deputies Rivera and Enriquez were elected in the last parliamentary elections of 2021 under the banner of the indigenous party Yatama, which was outlawed by the government a week after their illegal arrest.
Before their detention, both legislators had denounced at the UN the presence of invaders in their indigenous territory in Nicaragua. This phenomenon has been occurring in recent years in full view of the country’s military authorities.