Nicaragua: Government Crackdown On Civilians “Tantamount To Crimes Against Humanity,” UN Experts Say

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The government of Nicaragua has been engaged in human rights abuses against civilians that are “tantamount to crimes against humanity,” a panel of UN-backed human rights experts warned on Thursday. Commissioned by the Human Rights Council, the experts made their findings during an investigation into President Daniel Ortega’s violent crackdown on political dissidents, the Associated Press reports.

Ongoing for years, Ortega’s intolerance for dissent has intensified, driving huge numbers of Nicaraguans to flee the country: recent figures show more than 180,000 visa-less Nicaraguans trekked to the US border seeking asylum in 2022, around 60 times more than two years prior. Tens of thousands have sought refuge in Costa Rica as well.

According to the UN-backed panel, Ortega has further extended his suppression of the Nicaraguan people to include university students, Indigenous and Black Nicaraguans, and members of the Catholic Church, AP reports. Children, too, have been targeted for having relatives who spoke against the government. The government’s actions are aimed at “incapacitating any kind of opposition in the long term,” the experts said.

“Serious systematic human rights violations, tantamount to crimes against humanity, continue to be perpetrated by the Nicaraguan government for political reasons,” the panel of experts reported.

The Ortega government has suppressed “all forms of opposition, whether real or perceived, both domestically and abroad,” Jan Simon, the panel’s leader, said in a statement. “The government has ensured that it remains in an increasingly solid bubble to perpetuate itself in power and annihilate anyone attempting to break that bubble.”

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