The United Nations’ human rights chief condemned restrictions on political freedoms and the repression of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua after its president announced a raft of measures. Source: The Tablet.
Speaking at an event on 19 July celebrating 47 years since the Sandinista Revolution, President Daniel Ortega announced that there would be “no more elections” in the country so that the opposition cannot “seize power”.
It was subsequently reported that Mr Ortega plans to abolish the National Assembly itself and replace it with 1500 deputies elected at local level who would meet nationally once a year.
Mr Ortega’s decision was condemned by the United States and the Organisation of American States (OEA), as well as by Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The secretary general of the OEA ,Albert Ramdín, said that the Nicaraguan Government “has now made explicit what its actions had been demonstrating for some time: it has abandoned democracy, and even the appearance of it”.
Mr Türk said that Mr Ortega’s measures “further deepen the severe restrictions on fundamental freedoms, the dismantling of civic space, and the steady erosion of the rule of law”.
“I am disturbed by the reports of repression against the Catholic Church and other religious denominations, including by the absence of official information regarding the fate or whereabouts and condition of 80-year-old Bishop Abelardo Mata Guevara, who was detained on June 29,” he said.
“I urge the authorities to release immediately all individuals who have been arbitrarily detained and to ensure that all those detained are treated with humanity and dignity in line with Nicaragua’s obligations under international human rights law.”
The same day that Mr Ortega announced his plans, the Nicaraguan authorities denied re-entry to the country to Eliar Alonso, a priest who had been studying canon law in Spain and had already been appointed to a parish in his home Diocese of León.
This is the latest in a series of measures by the regime against the Church. In August 2022, Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa was arrested and sentenced to 26 years of imprisonment. He was eventually deported to Rome in January 2024.
Earlier, in 2019, Bishop Silvio Baez was advised by Pope Francis to leave Nicaragua for his own safety. In March 2022, the government expelled the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Waldemar Stanislav Sommertag.
FULL STORY
Nicaraguan regime ‘abandoning democracy’ with measures against opposition (By Francis McDonagh, The Tablet)
