Other human rights abuses
The Catholic Church was only one of the entities targeted by the Ortega regime. Other examples of human rights violations noted in the report include:
— No less than 1,178 human rights and development organizations have been closed or ordered to leave the country. Among these nongovernmental organizations were entities affiliated with the Catholic Church, including members of Mother Teresa’s order, the Missionaries of Charity, who were expelled from the country in July.
— At the time of writing, 180 people arrested during the 2021 political crisis remain in custody. The report revealed that their trials were held behind closed doors and lawyers for the defendants were denied access to evidence and not allowed to meet with their clients more than a few minutes before their hearings.
— Investigations by the UN body revealed inhuman conditions at a detention center that led to the death of one person in February. The report notes that the Nicaraguan government has failed to comply with the HRC’s recommendation that it “prevent acts of torture and ill-treatment in detention”.
— Press freedom has also “deteriorated”, according to the report, which notes that the manager of La Prensa, arrested in the run-up to the 2021 elections, was sentenced to nine years in prison for money laundering . The newspaper’s staff have since fled the country, “joining 120 other journalists who are in exile”. Three journalists were also sentenced to up to 13 years in prison for “disseminating false information and undermining national integrity”.
— The report found that the Nicaraguan government had failed to implement HRC recommendations that included electoral reform and investigation of human rights abuses by security forces.
