Crosses are seen on top of a Nicaraguan flag during a demonstration to commemorate Nicaragua's ... [+]
On February 8, 2024, British politicians launched a Parliamentary inquiry to consider the situation in Nicaragua and the ever-growing suppression of the rights of religious leaders and institutions, the media and the opposition (the Nicaragua Inquiry). The inquiry follows concerning reports of targeted attacks against anyone being critical of the Ortega regime, including as seen over Christmas 2023. Around Christmas 2023, the government arbitrarily arrested and detained clergymen including Father Silvio Fonseca, who has openly criticized the Nicaraguan government’s intense persecution of the Catholic Church, and Bishop Isidro Mora and Father Pablo Villafranca, each of whom offered prayers for the wrongfully imprisoned Bishop Rolando Álvarez prior to their arrests. Furthermore, on December 24, 2023 (Christmas Eve), the government sentenced six former employees of the Catholic charity Caritas, Julio Sevilla, Julio Berríos, Bladimir Pallés, María Verónica Herrera Galeano, Freydell Andino, and Mariví Andino, to six years imprisonment on dubious money laundering charges.
The targeting of the opposition around Christmas 2023 was nothing new, and indeed, recent years have seen similar practices. The targeting of human rights defenders and other critics became a legacy of the Ortega regime, with death threats, assaults, intimidation, harassment, surveillance, online defamation campaigns, and arbitrary detention and prosecution, among others. The government severely limits freedom of expression for journalists and media outlets, including with the use of threats, physical attacks, detentions, arbitrary financial investigations, arbitrary prosecutions, and forced closures. As reported by Human Rights Watch, “police frequently station themselves outside the houses of government critics, preventing them from leaving, in what amounts to arbitrary arrest. Those harassed are unable to visit friends and family, attend meetings, go to work, or participate in protests or political activities. Some have been detained repeatedly—sometimes being abused during detention—for periods ranging from several days to several months.” The human rights violations in Nicaragua are being considered as crimes against humanity by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The situation in Nicaragua requires urgent attention, to alleviate the suffering of the people, but also as Ortega is developing dangerous friendships with Russia and China, countries standing accused of committing atrocity crimes: with China standing accused of committing genocide against the Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang, and Russia perpetrating war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide against Ukrainian, and also oppressing the opposition in Russia. Since 2016, Russia has been supplying Nicaragua with military equipment and satellite monitoring infrastructure, in addition to the long-standing agreement on Russian troops training in Nicaragua and the military accessing the country. In January 2024, Nicaragua and China formally started trading under a new free trade agreement.
The Nicaragua Inquiry, led by prominent parliamentarians working on human rights, including Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws KC, Lord Alton of Liverpool, Baroness Hooper, Mark Menzies MP, Brendan O’Hara MP, Philip Mounstephen - Bishop of Winchester (author of the Truro Independent Review into the Persecution of Christians), and Fiona Bruce MP - the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, is conducted under the auspices of three Parliamentary groups, All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), on Central America, the International Freedom of Religion and Belief, and International Law, Justice, and Accountability.
Lord Alton of Liverpool, convener of the Inquiry, commented: “it is a privilege to convene such an impressive panel of expert parliamentarians to look into the credible reports of human rights violations in Nicaragua, particularly human rights violations that may meet the legal definition of crimes against humanity.”
Among the first experts to testify was Bianca Jagger, human rights defender, founder and president of Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation. Over the years, Bianca Jagger has been an outspoken critic of the Ortega regime and especially of the persecution of religious leaders in the country. Speaking to the Inquiry, she emphasized that Nicaragua is “probably one of the worst dictatorships in the world today” with “the Catholic Church [being] the last bastion of opposition left in Nicaragua.”
The Nicaragua Inquiry is seeking written submissions from individuals and organizations with relevant information in relation to the human rights situation to establish the nature and scale of the human rights violations in the country and identify recommendations for the U.K. government and other actors. Their report will be published in April 2024, in the lead to Nicaragua’s review by the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review.
