Nicaragua has become a de facto police state, warns the IACHR

The Nicaraguan government, headed by Sandinista Daniel Ortega, has become a de facto police state and has suppressed all freedoms, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) warned.

“The concentration of power by the Executive has made it easier for Nicaragua to become a de facto police state, where the Government has installed a regime of suppression of all freedoms through control and surveillance of the citizenry.”Said the coordinator of the Specialized Mechanism for Follow-up to Nicaragua (Meseni) of the IACHR, Fiorella Melzi.

It also applies repression through state and parastatal security institutions, endorsed by the other powers of the State, he denounced.

Melzi, a Peruvian lawyer specializing in human rights, made this assessment during a discussion called “Nicaragua: portrait of institutional capture in the Americas”, Within the framework of the Summit for Democracy, convened by US President Joseph Biden, which will be held virtually on December 9 and 10.

Ortega governs without counterweights

Melzi noted that in Nicaragua there is no system of checks and balances, “since all institutions respond to the decisions of the Executive”Of Ortega, whose concentration of all political power has weakened the rule of law and caused a“progressive deterioration in human rights”.

“The IACHR has expressed its concern about the closure of democratic spaces, suspension of freedoms, effects on freedom of expression, in a country where most of the media belong to people close to the Government”, He indicated.

According to Meseni, the Sandinista Executive intensified “the repression”Prior to the general elections of November 7, in which Ortega prevailed, with his main contenders in prison.

“There are no limits to the exercise of power“In Nicaragua, said the specialist, who criticized that the government maintains a narrative of denying”the violation of human rights” in the country.

They denounce an increase in the “repression”

For her part, the coordinator of the Human Rights Collective Nicaragua Never Again, Wendy Flores, agreed that the country remains a police state and has not resolved a serious socio-political and human rights crisis since April 2018.

He assured that the Ortega dictatorship has increased repression with more arrests of opponents, activists and journalists, prevented their adversaries and even Sandinistas from leaving the country, and ordered abusive immigration restrictions without prior notice to the affected party.

They have also taken passports from those who wish to leave the country, frozen bank accounts, and continued threats and harassment against opponents.

“All these repressive actions and the closure of democratic spaces have caused the forced displacement of more than 140,000 people who have been forced to seek international protection and leave the country to protect their lives, their freedom, and their personal integrity.“, he claimed.

Flores asked the countries to have “the situation of Nicaragua as a high priority in its State policies, including ignorance of the Government for lacking legitimacy”.

The virtual discussion was organized by the American Jewish World Service, the Washington Office for Latin American Affairs (Wola), the Center for Justice and International Law (Cejil) and the Human Rights Collective Nicaragua Never Again.

The event was attended by US Congressman Albio Sires, president of the Western Hemisphere, Civil Security, Migration and International Economic Policy subcommittee of the Lower House.