U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Tuerk warns people's rights and freedoms in Nicaragua are being whittled away by the increasingly authoritarian government of President Daniel Ortega. The high commissioner presented an update Thursday on the situation to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Tuerk criticized Nicaragua’s human rights record, saying the climate of oppression has intensified since the country’s human rights situation last came under review by the council.
Tuerk said dozens of people critical of the government have been arbitrarily detained for expressing their views since September. He described their conditions of detention as precarious.
“Those detained in El Chipote continue to suffer inhuman conditions, with limited access to medical care, to balanced diets and to regular family contact,” Tuerk said. “Their mental health deteriorating with every passing day. With humiliating and degrading treatment of family members visiting prisoners, such as elderly women subjected to strip-searching.”
Tuerk said more than 3,000 national and international nongovernmental organizations have been shut down, depriving countless people of access to services or assistance.
He said the media have been muzzled, human rights defenders, journalists and clergy arrested, harassed and intimidated.
Tuerk called November’s municipal elections a sham, noting the wave of arrests and dismissals of political opponents in the months leading up to the elections. He said the effects of this crisis continue to ripple beyond Nicaragua’s borders.
“Between January and October 2022, Costa Rica received 70,000 new asylum applications from Nicaraguans,” he said. “Over 147,000 Nicaraguans ended up at the borders of the United States of America. And the country has continued to isolate itself from the international community.”
In a rebuttal Thursday, Nicaragua’s attorney general, Wendy Carolina Morales Urbina, rejected the report as biased and manipulative.
She told the council to stop meddling in her country’s affairs. Instead of denigrating Nicaragua’s government and institutions, she said, the Council must act toward Nicaragua with respect, justice and equality.
