Nicaragua: a human rights update

In 2020 PBI launched a new accompaniment project in Costa Rica focused on providing support to exiled Nicaraguan human rights defenders. At September’s 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council, PBI made a statement verifying the sharp reduction of civic and democratic space in Nicaragua.

Read on for an insight into the deepening human rights crisis, and the need for global action - including from the UK.

In April 2018, a crackdown orchestrated by Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) left over 300 protesters and bystanders dead and more than 2,000 injured. Experts at the UN and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (both organisations expelled from the country in late 2018) have stated that the climate of repression has extended into a prolonged socio-political crisis defined by consistent human rights violations. 

The campaign of persecution of political opposition members, perceived opponents, independent journalists, critics, religious leaders, and human rights defenders has intensified over the past two years. Local and international NGOs document death threats, arbitrary arrests, assault, intimidation, harassment, surveillance, online defamation, immigration restrictions and hate speech as examples of the “clear pattern of repression of civic space”.

The government has failed to respond to international calls to fulfil its obligations to respect and guarantee fundamental freedoms, instead breaking diplomatic ties with countries critical of the Ortega-Murillo regime. 

Political prisoners

The elections of November 2021 were declared lacking in democratic legitimacy by a majority of OAS member states, and the UN High Commissioner described the municipal elections of November 2022 as “an exercise in autocracy”.

The Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners in Nicaragua (a human rights advocates' collective) had recorded over 240 political prisoners currently jailed arbitrarily at the beginning of this month. On February 9, Amnesty International reported that 222 of these prisoners have been forcibly expelled from their country and deported to the USA, after being described as “traitors” by the government and subsequently stripped of their Nicaraguan nationality. 

According to the latest world report by Human Rights Watch, between February and May 2022, 50 government critics – including seven presidential candidates in the 2021 elections – received sentences of up to 13 years. Trumped-up charges – carrying prison sentences as long as 25 years – include “destabilizing the State”, “propagating false news”, “money laundering”, “acts of hatred”, “terrorism”, and related crimes. Prisoners have been subjected to cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment, held in deplorable conditions at El Chipote detention facility, and in many cases, months of solitary confinement. 

Relatives of regime critics are also targeted. The latest victim is sixty-year-old Martha del Socorro Ubilla, mother of political prisoners Marvin and Marlon Castellón Ubilla, who were detained in the 2018 protests. Martha was arrested in the early hours of the morning on January 11 on as yet unspecified accusations. Three known opponents of the government were also detained.

Religious freedom is also threatened in Nicaragua, with church-affiliated organisations forced to terminate their legal status and hostilities towards religious figures critical of the regime escalating into detentions and expulsions. In July 2022, 18 nuns from the order Missionaries of Charity, who maintained a shelter for abused girls that had been shut down the previous month, were bussed to the border, escorted by immigration officials and police officers, and forced into exile. A month later, police arbitrarily arrested Bishop Rolando Álvarez along with eight others after holding them hostage for two weeks. On January 10, the sentence of house arrest for "propagation of false news" and "conspiracy to undermine national integrity" was upheld, despite numerous irregularities in the case, such as the carrying out of the judicial process in secrecy without allowing the bishop to name his own defence attorney. On 5 and 6 February, five Catholic priests, two seminarians, and a cameraman for a Catholic television channel were all sentenced to 10 years in prison on similar charges of conspiracy against national integrity and disseminating fake news.

The prohibition of NGOs and attacks on free media

Exiled advocates who PBI works with report that there are presently no independent organisations in Nicaragua dedicated to protecting human rights. In his oral update last December, the UN High Commissioner highlighted the suspension of over 3000 NGOs by the Nicaraguan parliament, almost half of which shuttered since September of 2022. These include national and international educational, media, religious, communicative, aid, women’s, community as well as medical groups. 

Human Rights Watch has highlighted the use of excessive force and violence in the carrying out of raids without warrants, by authorities at homes and organization headquarters, where equipment has been seized and destroyed and personnel assaulted – as occurred at the Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights (CENIDH) and the newspaper Confidencial. Journalists covering such raids are at heightened risk, as are all communicators raising awareness of the deteriorating human rights situation of the country. At least 17 radio stations were closed in August 2022 and CNN's Spanish-language service suspended on September 21. Over 200 media workers have reportedly gone into exile since 2018.

The Interior Ministry refuses to establish communication with such organisations, or to issue certifications in order for them to operate legally. Through the judiciary, the State has impeded access to justice for NGOs in the face of attacks on freedom of expression and association. Nicaragua has reached an all-time low on Transparency International's corruption index, ranking in the top three most corrupt countries of Latin America. 

Increase in violence against women, children and minority peoples

The radical reduction of safe spaces in which to provide much-needed social assistance for vulnerable peoples is directly impacting the lives of women, girls and adolescents, as well as the recognition of the rights of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples.

The government has not published figures on gender-based violence (GBV) over the past year. However, the IM Defenders Initiative registered more than 550 attacks against feminist defenders and the closure of around 200 women’s associations. In terms of femicides, the Catholic Observatory for the Right to Decide puts the number at 57 for 2022, which includes the murder of two sisters aged seven and ten, from the indigenous Miskito community of Walakitang, whose family had moved to the capital in search of work opportunities. 

Discrimination against Indigenous and Afro-descendant people continues to be evidenced by forced displacement as a result of illegal occupation of their territories, carried out with extreme violence including kidnapping, sexual assault, arson attacks and killings. On January 11, a group of 14 Indigenous leaders called on Ortega "to evict the massive invasion of destructive settlers in Indigenous territories”, appropriating up to 80% of indigenous community lands in some territories. In a signed proclamation, the representatives denounce the massacre of indigenous leaders, the granting of illegal concessions to private companies, environmental devastation and the “imposition of terror” on community life.

Forced to flee

Thousands of people have fled into exile as a result of persecution in their home country, rendering them vulnerable to renewed protection risks as refugees and asylum seekers due to their irregular situation. 

According to the UNHCR, more Nicaraguans are currently seeking protection in neighbouring Costa Rica than all refugees and asylum seekers combined during Central America’s civil wars in the 1980s, with the number of Nicaraguans crossing the southern border doubling between August 2021 and March 2022, to over 150,000 people. Additionally, more than 164,500 Nicaraguans were apprehended by the US Border Patrol in 2022, a 224% increase from the 50,000 who attempted to cross in 2021. 

The UK and Nicaragua

Repression is increasing in Nicaragua, and it is the most vulnerable who suffer the most acute consequences. As space for civic dialogue continues to constrict in Nicaragua, it is vital that the UK - which has designated Nicaragua as a human rights priority country - continues to call for respect for rights, free media, and democracy, and supports those in exile. 

The UK government has expressed deep concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in Nicaragua, of continuing human rights violations, and the extension and implementation of regulations to maintain control. Last year, the UK supported the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution to establish the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, whose single-year mandate to investigate the human rights violations committed in Nicaragua since April 2018 is due for extension at the HRC this year. The 52nd Session of the Human Rights Council will vote on whether to renew the mandate of the Group of Experts in March 2023 and see them continue to investigate human rights violations in Nicaragua, and for what period of time.

Alongside partners in the HRC, the UK has called for the immediate and unconditional release of all opposition leaders and other political prisoners in Nicaragua, and for the full restoration of their civil and political rights. The government has also taken actions including sanctions.

On 15th November 2021, the UK imposed sanctions against eight senior Nicaraguan individuals, including travel bans and asset freezes. These UK actions were coordinated with the US and Canada, which imposed similar sanctions on leading Nicaraguan officials, to maximise pressure on the Ortega Murillo regime to change behaviour and end the repression of Nicaragua’s citizens. The new sanctions added to the 6 that were carried over when the UK left the EU under the Nicaragua (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 and one designation that the UK imposed on 26 April under the Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regulations 2021.

The UK has committed to continuing to work through the bilateral relationship and multilateral institutions to promote human rights, a free media, democracy and open society in Nicaragua.

At Peace Brigades International, we will continue to support the brave human rights defenders standing up for peace, rights and democracy, whether in the country or in exile. For more information on please check out Voices in Resistance, a collection of testimonies from Nicaraguan organisations and collectives that, from exile in Costa Rica, continue to work determinedly in the defence of human rights.