The report warns that religious freedom in the Central American country “remained under undue restrictions,” including the “arbitrary” detention of 27 Catholic priests and seminarians, between October and January, and the closure of many religious organizations among the 5,000 organizations of all kinds dissolved since 2018.
The UN warned on Tuesday of the “serious” deterioration of human rights in Nicaragua since last year, with an increase in arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and persecution of all “perceived as dissidents” by Daniel Ortega’s regime.
“The authorities continue to pursue not only those who express dissenting opinions, but also any person or organization who acts independently or who is not directly under their control,” he says in a report published by the agency’s Human Rights Office.
“This includes human rights defenders, independent media, non-governmental organizations and any other entity advocating for social or political changes without government oversight,” he adds.
The report, based on 120 interviews with victims and witnesses of human rights violations and representatives of civil society, covers a period of one year since June last year.
Among other facts, the text notes that in May of this year “131 persons considered as opponents were in arbitrary detention,” a figure much higher than that of June 2023. In addition, it documents 12 cases of “torture and ill-treatment in detention,” as well as an increase in violence against indigenous people and people of African descent.
The report warns that religious freedom in the Central American country “remained under undue restrictions,” including the “arbitrary” detention of 27 Catholic priests and seminarians, between October and January, and the closure of many religious organizations among the 5,000 organizations of all kinds dissolved since 2018.
The dictatorship of Ortega and his powerful wife and vice president Rosario Murillo tightened the laws against the Oenegés after the 2018 protests, which in three months left more than 300 dead, according to UN reports.
Ortega, a 78-year-old former guerrilla who ruled Nicaragua in the 1980s and returned to power uninterruptedly since 2007, argues that the Oenegés and especially the Catholic Church supported these protests, which he considers an attempted coup sponsored by Washington.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker T.rk, said that the exercise of fundamental civil and political rights is becoming increasingly difficult.”
“The multifaceted crisis that has affected Nicaragua since 2018 requires an urgent change of course by the government.”
Volker Tirk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
At the end of August, Tusk that “unfortunately” there is no “cooperation” between the Ortega government and its office, which “makes very difficult” the follow-up to the situation in the country.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo