Nicaragua’s Rulers Finally Admit Brooklyn Rivera Is Captive
During the UN’s Universal Periodic Review, officials of the Ortega dictatorship finally disclosed the charges against Brooklyn Rivera and Nancy Henriquez.
HAVANA TIMES – Brooklyn Rivera and Nancy Henriquez, both former legislators with the indigenous Yatama Party, were imprisoned for “crimes of treason, undermining the national integrity, proposition, conspiracy, and spreading false news,” the authoritarian regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo finally admitted during sessions of the United Nation’s Universal Periodic Review.
This is the first time the dictatorship has spoken of the criminal charges filed against Brooklyn Rivera, a well-known Miskito leader and national ex-president of the Yatama political party. Rivera was abducted on September 29, 2023, and hasn’t been seen since.
Representatives of the dictatorship stated that Rivera, as well as Nancy Henriquez, were “stripped of their condition as deputies” by the National Assembly, due to “abandoning their parliamentary labors for over 60 consecutive days, without just cause.”
Subsequently, “the immunity granted to deputies was also suspended, in order to conduct investigations for the commission of serious crimes,” since they had supposedly violated Nicaraguan criminal laws.
“These accusations not only disturbed the peace and security of Nicaraguans, but also undermined the national sovereignty. Hence, based on the evidence gathered, the Prosecutor’s Office formulated and presented an indictment that was admitted by the competent judicial authority,” they admitted, without revealing whether Rivera had been tried or sentenced.
Brooklyn Rivera’s family has filed two habeas corpus petitions, a legal recourse that would require the indigenous deputy to be presented before a judge. However, the petition was denied by the Nicaraguan justice system.
The criminal accusations against Henriquez, an alternate deputy for Yatama, were already known. On December 13, 2023, she was sentenced to eight years in prison for the supposed crimes of “undermining the national integrity” and spreading false news to the detriment of the Nicaraguan government and society.”
Henriquez’ “trial” was conducted within the women’s prison known as La Esperanza, and according to her family she was denied the right to a defense lawyer. Relatives of Henriquez have been able to visit her in prison.
Brooklyn Rivera “disappeared” over a year ago
The Miskito leader Brooklyn Rivera was detained by police at his home in Bilwi – capital of Nicaragua’s North Caribbean Region – on September 29, 2023, at around 8:30 am. Since that time, his family members have neither seen nor heard from him.
Relatives told Confidencial that Rivera was arrested through deceit, following a visit supposedly from Ministry of Health workers who were supervising the zone as part of a campaign against malaria.
“Without showing any documents,” or offering any explanation, they simply “entered, took everyone’s cellphones and carried him off,” a family member stated.
Now, fourteen months after Rivera’s detention, it’s unknown whether any verdict or sentence exists against him. “We still don’t know anything. We don’t understand,” his distraught daughter, Tininiska Rivera, told the media site Infobae at the beginning of November 2024.
Rivera was effectively banished in March 2023, when the dictatorship blocked his return to the country after he participated in the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. However, in April 2023, he used unmarked border crossings in the Miskito territory to reenter the North Caribbean region of Nicaragua, and was moving around through the use of safe houses.
Alternate deputy Nancy Henriquez was the one who assumed the Yatama seat in Nicaragua’s National Assembly following the banishment of deputy Brooklyn Rivera. On the eve of his detention, Rivera had gone to his home in Bilwi, allegedly because he was preparing to leave the country once again.
Simultaneously with Rivera’s arrest, Ortega’s police forces occupied the Green House, as the Yatama party headquarters in Bilwi was known. They also occupied the Yatama Party office in Waspam, a city that borders on the Honduran Miskito territory, and canceled the operating license of the community radio station Yapti Tasba Bila Baikra which was tied to the Yatama party. Less than 96 hours after taking Rivera away, the dictatorship ordered the arrest of Nancy Elizabeth Henriquez, his alternate deputy and legal representative of Yatama.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.