The situation in Nicaragua

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, for scheduling this meeting, and our thanks to the President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and to the experts who spoke at the outset to report on the situation before us.

With our vote today we wish to express our concern at the grave shrinking of democratic space in Nicaragua. That is why, together with this large group of member States, we joined in calling for this meeting and co-sponsored the text we have just adopted.

In recent weeks, reports of serious actions against the media, non-profit organizations, religious leaders and faith groups have intensified.

Dear colleagues, a year ago we already warned of and condemned the detention and criminalization of presidential pre-candidates and the criminal prosecution of well-known leaders of opposition political groups and business associations, of human rights defenders and of members of the independent press.

Since then it has been reported that many of these people who have been “prosecuted,” and some who have already been convicted, have not been guaranteed the right to an adequate legal defense, have had their access to lawyers restricted, and for the most part have been held incommunicado.

The lack of minimum guarantees reflects arbitrariness, a system without checks and balances, and the absence of independence among the branches of government. None of this is consistent with the obligations that all of us in the international community have undertaken.

The closing of democratic spaces has become ever more suffocating.

We express our concern at the suspension of liberties and the harm done to freedom of expression. Attacks on freedom of the press have been recorded, through police harassment and the institutional persecution of media outlets and of people working in the independent press, which has led to the closure of several outlets and the exile of more than one hundred journalists.

The recent expulsion of nuns and the siege of ecclesiastical authorities of the Catholic Church are acts that must be reconsidered. The recent ban on a celebration of Our Lady of Fátima and the closure of Catholic radio stations defy all logic.

The images of Monsignor Álvarez and his companions, unable to move because of a police cordon of riot shields at his door, are more eloquent than any speech. In such dramatic conditions, Monsignor Álvarez called for evil to be overcome with the strength and power of good, and when asked how he was bearing his confinement he said “with inner strength, with peace and serenity in the heart,” which “can only come from God.” That is testimony to his vocation for peace, inspiring and courageous.

Madam Chair, Mr. Secretary General, dear colleagues,

The gravity of the situation is bewildering.

The widespread impunity for documented grave violations of human rights admits of no explanation. They call for an end, and for truth, justice, reparation and non-repetition.

Dear colleagues, the direction this situation is taking is grim.

Everything indicates that these actions, having been directed at the political opposition, the media, non-governmental organizations, universities and the Church, will advance against other actors in society who have a vocation for social and political conscience.

It would seem that it is not enough for no one to speak or to demonstrate… there will be no one left to think, either.

We demand, we insist upon, an immediate end to the persecution and detention of dissenting voices for the mere fact of expressing themselves; the immediate release of all those who are arbitrarily detained; guarantees of their integrity and personal safety; the restoration of the rights and guarantees proper to a democratic State governed by the rule of law; and progress in a process of internal dialogue that ensures an environment of broad participation.

Thank you very much.