Dictator Daniel Ortega alongside his wife and Vice President Rosario Murillo during an event marking the 90th anniversary of the assassination of General Augusto C. Sandino. Photo: Taken from El 19 Digital
The time for tepid measures has ended. Faced with such a damning report, action must be taken with greater determination. Experts offer a roadmap.
HAVANA TIMES – In March 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council, appalled by the repression unleashed by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, established a Group of Experts on Human Rights in Nicaragua. Its mandate was to “investigate all alleged human rights violations and abuses” committed since April 2018, following the massive protests that shook the country.
In March 2023, the experts issued a first report. Among its many chilling revelations, it highlighted “extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, torture and cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment, arbitrary deprivation of nationality and violations of the right to remain in one’s own country, as well as the right to participate in public affairs and freedoms of expression, opinion, association, assembly, conscience, and religion.”
There was no doubt then, based on their solid work, about the perverse nature of the regime and the construction of an unprecedented repressive machinery. In view of this reality, the Council renewed the group’s tasks for two years, composed of Jean-Michael Simon, Angela María Buitrago, and Ariela Peralta Distefano, internationally recognized specialists.
Their second report, released last Thursday in Geneva, reveals an even more tragic situation: the articulation and imposition, by th