Violence against Nicaraguan Women from Bad to Worse
The International Day to Fight Violence against Women arrives with more repression and impunity
This is the fifth consecutive year under a police state that women cannot take to the streets to demonstrate against the repression they face.
HAVANA TIMES – The Autonomous Women’s Movement of Nicaragua (MAM) denounced that Nicaragua arrives at the International Day to Fight Violence against Women, this November 25, with more repression and impunity for the perpetrators as a consequence of serious violations of fundamental rights and freedoms that the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo continues to execute.
The movement reproached the Ortega regime for keeping prohibited the rights to organization, assembly and freedom of expression. This is the fifth consecutive year that women do not take to the streets, as part of the commemoration of the second important activity of the year, in addition to March 8th, International Women’s Day.
“We live in a Nicaragua, where violence and serious violations of fundamental rights and freedoms continue, where organizing, expressing an opinion or demonstrating is prohibited,” MAM said in a statement.
The women’s movement also stressed that although the official discourse of the dictatorship aims to “sell the false image” that Nicaragua is a country where equality and gender equity are respected, the reality is quite different.
“The reality is that women who occupy institutional positions cannot give their opinion or decide autonomously, but can only obey and execute orders, including those that violate the rights of the general population and the rights of women themselves,” they explained.
Impunity as a sexist reference
The Women’s Movement also criticized that impunity continues to “be the sexist reference” and pointed out that so far this year 67 Nicarauan women have been victims of femicide, 47 in Nicaragua and 20 who resided abroad.
The Voices Observatory of Catholics for the Right to Decide organization has noted that the Northern and Southern Caribbean regions have been identified as the areas with the highest incidence of hate crimes against Nicaraguan women.
The number of Nicaraguan women who were murdered at the hands of men registered to date could exceed last year, which closed with a total of 68 women murdered as a result of sexist violence in the country.
Expressions of violence on the rise
Along the same lines, the MAM denounced that the different expressions of violence continue to increase, according to the data revealed by the Institute of Legal Medicine in its bulletins.
“As of July 2023, the Institute of Legal Medicine reported in its bulletins 3,083 cases attended in 7 months and in all of 2022 they reported a total of 5,042 cases,” they noted.
“This situation is aggravated by the lack of protection of the victims who have to present their complaint to institutions that do not have specialized personnel, and which reinforce an official discourse that privileges family unity over rights.”
Women political prisoners
The Movement reiterated that unfortunately the political persecution against people stigmatized as opponents or defenders of human rights continues in the country.
“Currently there are at least 17 women who are recognized as prisoners for political reasons, although their relatives keep them anonymous to avoid further reprisals against their families. All of them continue to be subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, without the right to sunlight, isolated from other common prisoners, without health care and serious risks to their lives,” the organization condemned.
Given this panorama, the MAM reiterated its commitment to “continue denouncing violence against Nicaraguan women” and also demand freedom for the political prisoners.