The opposition organizations in Nicaragua have demanded that the European Union (EU) take into account the resolution agreed on Thursday by the European Parliament, which has proposed sanctioning the country’s president, Daniel Ortega and his close circle “for the continuous and incessant repression orchestrated by the regime” against the citizens.
In the last resolution taken this Thursday by EU officials, the European Parliament asked the presidency of the European Council not to invite the representatives of the Ortega government to the summit between the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). ) that will be held on July 17 and 18 in Brussels. For the country’s opposition, “this resolution is an important step in the fight against the dictatorship led by Daniel Ortega.”
On the other hand, the organization Plataforma Unidad por la Democracia, which works from exile, asked the European Parliament to recognize “the Nicaraguan dictatorship.” The country’s opposition requested that the European institutions keep Nicaragua on their political agenda in order to maintain the sanctions imposed on 21 public officials, and extend said sanctions to state institutions and the country’s Army.
The country is not only suffering from human rights attacks, but also experiencing the slow death of freedom of expression. The organization Coalición Nicaragua Lucha, made up of 20 organizations that defend human rights, alerted this Thursday about the crisis of freedom of expression that is being experienced under the Ortega government.
The Nicaragua Fight Coalition denounced the press freedom crisis that is growing in Nicaragua. In a statement, the organizations warned about “the crisis in which the exercise of freedom is found in Nicaragua, where the right to freedom of expression and access to information has been completely diminished.” They warned that “the profession of journalism and communication have been threatened, harassed, and legally prosecuted in recent years.”
The organizations commented that most of the media have been forced to close their facilities, prosecute their workers, exile more than 200 journalists, and impose laws against press freedom. The opposition warned that among the people arrested and prosecuted is the journalist Victor Ticay, detained for the “propagation of false news” and for “threatening national integrity”, both crimes for which the Nicaraguan Prosecutor’s Office has accused more political prisoners. .
Opposition institutions have expressed their concern for the mental health of journalists and communicators, who are threatened and persecuted for practicing the profession. From exile, the members and founders of external organizations denounce the importance of access to information, a key instrument to be able to exercise all rights in a democratic society.
These organizations, among them Acción Penal, the Nicaraguan Human Rights Collective Never Again, the Mothers of April Association, and the Nicaraguan Autonomous Movement of Women, expressed their solidarity “with the people who practice journalism and communication in the country, whose trade they carry out in conditions adverse and is vital for resistance.
Following the visit of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Nicaragua on Tuesday, Ortega’s political position and his future plans for the regime become clearer. Raisi’s visit and his alliance with the Central American country put more emphasis on the importance of EU participation and the implementation of freedom of expression in the country.
Nicaragua has been going through a political, social, and economic crisis since April 2018, accentuated in 2021 after the re-election of Sandinista President Daniel Ortega for his fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with his main opponents in prison or in exile.
