A group of experts from the The UN accused the government of Nicaragua of committing systematic human rights violations, which constitute “crimes against humanity”.according to a report published this Thursday in which he called for international sanctions.

The document of the Group of Experts on Human Rights on Nicaragua, It lists among these violations and abuses extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, torture and arbitrary deprivation of nationality and the right to remain in one’s country.

“They are perpetrated in a widespread and systematic manner for political reasons constitute crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment, torture, including sexual violence, deportation and politically motivated persecution.”said independent expert Jan Simon, quoted in a statement.

“The Nicaraguan people live in fear of the actions that the government itself may take against them,” added Simon.

The group of experts is an independent body set up under the authority of the UN Human Rights Council to investigate alleged human rights violations in Nicaragua since April 2018, when violently suppressed protests erupted, resulting in 355 deaths and hundreds of arrests.

stateless

on February 9 Daniel Ortega’s government released 222 opponents from prison, deported them to the United States, and stripped them of their nationality.

A week later so was she They stripped 94 dissidents already in exile, including writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli, of their nationality.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned that Nicaraguan legislation allowing deprivation of citizenship violates international law.

President Ortega, in power since 2007 and consecutively re-elected in contested electionsfaced a wave of condemnation from the international community for its authoritarian drift.

The report emphasizes that abuses “are not an isolated phenomenon”, but the fruit of a “deliberate dismantling of democratic institutions and the destruction of civic and democratic space”.

As of December 2018, at least 3,144 civil society organizations have been closed and virtually all independent media and human rights organizations operate from abroad, the statement said.

Appointed leaders

According to the expert group Ortega, along with his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, committed and continues to commit these crimes.

In its report, the group urges the international community to take legal action against those responsible for these violations and to strengthen sanctions.

The report indicates that national police and pro-government armed groups engaged in a coordinated pattern of extrajudicial killings during the 2018 protests, which lasted nearly five months.

“Thousands of human rights defendersNGO workers, activists, journalists, student and religious leaders, and artists and opposition leaders “were forced to leave the country,” said expert Ángela María Buitrago, quoted in the statement.

In the document, the experts urge the government to end “rape, abuse and crime, in particular politically motivated persecution” and to launch independent investigations into reported abuses.