Exposing Ongoing Human Rights Violations and Abuses in Nicaragua
Winnie Jineska Sobalvarro Oporta, The Committee for the Liberation of Political Prisoners in Nicaragua, participates in a discussion at the United Nations in Geneva.
On April 4, the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Georgia held an event at the United Nations in Geneva to expose the ongoing violations and abuses of human rights in Nicaragua that began in April 2018 with the Ortega-Murillo regime’s violent crackdown on peaceful protesters.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Roger Carstens of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor delivered opening remarks to underscore the severity of the human rights crisis occurring in Nicaragua. A panel of Nicaraguan civil society leaders, including independent journalists and a human rights activist, provided firsthand accounts of the Ortega-Murillo regime’s alarming and continuing pattern of arbitrary arrest, harassment, and threats against anyone perceived as an opponent. Advocates for political prisoners reported that many of those arbitrarily or unlawfully detained remain in detention and recounted continued violence and restriction of civil liberties for both those detained and their family members.
U.S. Mission Photo/Eric Bridiers