Geneva (EFE).- Crimes against humanity are committed by the Nicaraguan government “as part of a generalized and systematic line of conduct” against part of the country’s population for political reasons, said today the Group of Experts on Human Rights of the UN for the Central American country.
When presenting their first report on the situation in Nicaragua, published on March 2 at a press conference and debated today at the United Nations Human Rights Council, the experts affirmed that the “crime against humanity of persecution” is committed ” from the highest levels of government.
The regime headed by Daniel Ortega “instrumentalized all the powers of the State against the opposition, real or perceived as such,” the German Jan Simon, president of the group of experts, said in his speech before the Council, completed by the Chilean Alexandro Álvarez and the Colombian Angela Buitrago.
Simon assured that the impunity that prevails in the face of these crimes “allowed the escalation of violence against people in opposition or perceived as such.”
Facts of a different nature documented
The report, which investigated 159 cases and conducted interviews with 291 victims and witnesses, documents human rights violations such as extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, torture that included sexual violence, or arbitrary deprivation of nationality, among other abuses.
In view of these violations against people opposed to the Government of Nicaragua “or perceived as such”, the group of experts urged the Ortega regime to immediately put an end to the abuses and ensure the accountability of those responsible for them, guaranteeing justice for the victims.
They also call for the immediate release of all persons arbitrarily deprived of their liberty and “implement the necessary measures to guarantee the separation of powers” in Nicaragua.
When presenting the report, the president of the group of experts stressed that they could not carry out investigations within Nicaragua because they did not receive permission from the authorities, although they did carry out five missions to areas close to that territory.
The report concludes that behind these crimes against humanity are both Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, and senior officers of the National Police and other state entities.
Nicaragua rejects the report
The group of experts was created based on a resolution approved in March 2022 by the Human Rights Council itself to investigate and gather evidence of the crisis in Nicaragua that originated after the citizen protests of 2018.
After the intervention of the president of the group, the Attorney General of Nicaragua, Wendy Morales, had a turn to reply, who by video message rejected the conclusions of the experts, according to her prepared with information “from sectors of the opposition that disseminate subjective situations and facts , distorted and false”.
Those opponents, he added, “act under the guidelines of imperial powers whose sole purpose is to harm our independence and sovereignty.”
“We will not allow these malicious reports to continue discrediting and denigrating our authorities, our institutions, or our legal system,” Morales said.