In the past year, repression has expanded to large swaths of society with a focus on “incapacitating any kind of opposition in the long term,” according to the independent group of U.N. experts investigating the issue since March 2022.
Jan Simon, an expert who headed the investigation, said at a news conference Thursday in Geneva that the Nicaraguan government’s persecution targets “all forms of opposition, whether real or perceived, both domestically and abroad.”
Ortega’s government has repeatedly said that the mass demonstrations against it in 2018 constituted a failed coup attempt orchestrated by the United States, and typically defends any repression as a crackdown on anti-government plots.
The human rights report, which came after hundreds of interviews, implicated a number of high ranking officials in crackdowns that have firmly consolidated power in the hands of Ortega and his Vice President Rosario Murillo.
“This report presents a well-documented work that for the first time identifies the main perpetrators of abuses and crimes against humanity” and “reveals the structure and chain of command of the repression from State institutions,” Morazán said.
The U.N. report urges the Ortega government to release “arbitrarily” detained Nicaraguans and calls on global leaders to expand sanctions on “individuals and institutions involved in human rights violations.”
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