Hispanic senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menéndez today asked the Organization of American States (OAS) to investigate violence in the protests against the government in Nicaragua, which has left at least 30 dead.
In a letter addressed to the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, the two Cuban-born legislators asked him to “work with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) to carry out an immediate and complete investigation.”
“We commend his willingness to speak out against the abuses that are taking place in Nicaragua and we urge him to work with the IACHR to investigate these incidents immediately and work with international partners to bring justice to those families and accountability to the police forces.” , they indicated.
“Those (police) forces must understand that they can not act with impunity,” added the letter, sent today to the press by Rubio (Republican) and Menéndez (Democrat).
The OAS has no scheduled meeting of its Permanent Council this week, despite the seriousness of the events in Nicaragua since the protests began eight days ago.
Almagro issued an official statement on Sunday condemning “the violence that has caused the most deaths in Nicaragua,” but avoided attributing it to a specific actor or actors.
Yesterday, he wrote a message on Twitter celebrating the announcement of the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference on the start of the dialogue convened by the president, Daniel Ortega.
“We hope it will generate results to resolve the institutional issues that affect the country,” he said.
The IACHR, autonomous body of the OAS, yesterday condemned the deaths in the protests and announced that it will ask Ortega for authorization to make a working visit to the country.
In a statement, the Commission urged the State to guarantee “strict adherence to the general principles of legality, exceptionality, proportionality and absolute necessity in the use of force in contexts of social protest.”
As a result of the different acts of violence recorded in the protests in Nicaragua, the non-governmental organizations and the Nicaraguan Red Cross had at least 30 dead, including two policemen, one teenager and one journalist, 428 wounded, and more than 200. protesters arrested or disappeared.
