The Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Paulo Abrão, described as “alarming” the situation in Nicaragua, a country that has been immersed for several months in a crisis that this organization believes should be followed closely by the international community .
“No other State in the region has produced the high number of fatalities like Nicaragua this year, which should be considered a priority by all,” Abrão said in an interview with Efe.
After Managua temporarily suspended the presence of the Special Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua (Meseni) and announced the expiration of the term of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), Abrão warned of an “explicit attempt to silence the opposition and any kind of dissent. “
“It is a decision that on the one hand is consistent with what is happening inside the country,” the head of the IACHR did not hesitate to affirm.
He explained that in recent days “the spaces of civil society have been reduced” due to the cancellation of the functioning of several NGOs, while “arbitrary” detentions continue and the system offers no “perspective of justice” to the victims.
“A deterioration of the rule of law in Nicaragua is clear to me,” added Abrão, ratifying that the Meseni “will continue with its integral tasks” from Washington, supported by an information network that it constituted in the last six months that will allow its labor follow “intact”.
The Meseni had been working since June 24 in Nicaragua with the objective of monitoring the “human rights situation” and following up on the recommendations and precautionary measures issued by the IACHR itself.
Meanwhile, the GIEI supported the investigations of the violent events that took place in that country between April 18 and May 30, under an agreement reached by the IACHR, the OAS General Secretariat and the Government of Daniel Ortega.
This Wednesday, the IACHR had warned of the “intensification of the fourth stage of state repression” in Nicaragua, after previous phases that consisted of attacks on peaceful street demonstrations, armed attacks against cities that reject Ortega and the criminalization of protests. .
“This new stage has to do with the attempt to generate appearance of legality to acts of exception, decrees and administrative acts that are affecting the essential content of human rights,” he said.
According to Abrão, “today the police are forbidding demonstrations, Congress is canceling the operation of NGOs, there are new rules that affect private initiative and business associations, there are restrictions on access to judicial public hearings provided in the Constitution of the country” …
“These acts of exception will try to generate this perspective of normality and should be denounced, this is a symbolic violence against democracy itself,” said Abrão, who said that “what happens in Nicaragua must be observed very carefully throughout the international community. “
And he opined that “the weakening of democratic institutions in the country and the very absence of justice and reparation to the victims should have enough force to constrain the entire international community to press for an immediate end to repression.”
“The Commission has already decided that Nicaragua is a priority that will continue in 2019,” concluded the head of the IACHR, who described the situation in the Central American country as “alarming” by comparing it “in proportion” with the “very critical” situation that It has been lived in Venezuela.
“It is a country with six million inhabitants and much smaller than Venezuela,” argued Abrão.
The IACHR has indicated that the repression in Nicaragua has left 325 dead and at least 400 detained, while the Government recognizes 199 victims and 273 arrested. (EFEUSA) .-
