Nicaragua: Peace is the fruit of justice

Nicaragua: Peace is the fruit of justice

More than eighty civil society organisations and grassroots religious organisations are showing their support for the Nicaraguan people with a campaign of endorsements and the collection of individual support.

At the beginning of June, the controversial Summit of the Americas began and various civil society organisations are showing their solidarity with the more than 180 political prisoners (14 of them women) with the aim of not forgetting the socio-political crisis that the Central American country is experiencing under the authoritarian regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

The member organisations urge the international community, through its most representative organisations, to maintain pressure on the regime, demanding respect for the human rights of political prisoners and the entire Nicaraguan population, in order to achieve a civic and peaceful solution to the conflict.

Madrid, 06 June 2022
Photo courtesy of Divergentes – Narrative Journalism 

A letter – a communiqué signed by more than ninety organisations of very diverse characteristics and origins, denounces the situation of human rights violations experienced by the entire Nicaraguan population, especially the political prisoners held in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), popularly known as El Chipote.

The support group for the Nicaraguan people, promoter of this letter, emphasizes to denounce the conditions in which political prisoners are held, conditions that violate the elementary norms of human rights, as well as the defencelessness in which they find themselves when they are sentenced in rigged trials and without complying with any legal guarantees. These convictions have not only affected the prisoners, but also their families, driving many of them into exile in order to denounce this situation.

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The number of political prisoners has been increasing. There are now more than 180 people. At the time of writing this letter there were just over 170. Among them are 14 women, some of them young mothers, who have not been allowed visits, phone calls, letters or drawings of their children. The same is true of the number of civil society organisations that have had their legal status cancelled, double the number indicated in the communiqué. At the beginning of May, the number of cancelled organisations was a little more than 200, and at the beginning of June, there are now more than 450 cancelled organisations.

The Nicaraguan Catholic Church is not spared from the regime’s harassment either. Last March, the government withdrew the approval of Nuncio Mons Waldemar Sommertag and ordered him to leave the country immediately. Several priests are also denouncing harassment and persecution by the police. This is the case of Mgr Rolando Álvarez, bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa and administrator of the diocese of Estelí. Similarly, the priest Harvy Padilla, from the parish of San Juan Bautista in the city of Masaya, has denounced harassment by the police who did not allow him to leave the parish.

Therefore, the support group for the Nicaraguan people, made up of Civil Society Associations, Feminists, Grassroots Religious Movements, Catholic Commissions for Justice and Peace, leaders of Evangelical Churches, Christian Magazines and various personalities, urge the international community to demand the immediate release of all political prisoners, as well as to promote the recovery of freedom of organisation, mobilisation, expression, freedom of the press and the end of the imposed police state. And above all, to maintain solidarity with the people of Nicaragua by collaborating in a civic and peaceful solution.

This cause is opened by the Grupo de Apoyo al Pueblo Nicaragüense (*) and is open to all organisations that share the same objective, which is none other than the defence of human rights in Nicaragua. You can add your support as an organisation by clicking on the button above.

(*) The Nicaraguan People’s Support Group is an organisation that has been formed spontaneously and altruistically; it is made up of diverse civil society, secular and religious organisations, feminist groups, together with well-known – and not so well-known – people committed to the defence of human rights, the care of the common home and peace. So far it has received the support of countless NGOs.

Sources: Support Group for the Nicaraguan people; image: Divergentes

Support with your sign!

Signatures obtained: 65

Objective: 100