Nicaragua’s government has committed serious and systematic violations which amount to crimes against humanity, a United Nations-appointed team of human rights experts has said, calling for international sanctions against the government.
“The objective (of the government) is to eliminate by different means any opposing or dissenting voices in the country,” Jan Simon, chair of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, told journalists at a briefing to present the findings in Geneva, Switzerland, saying the government was “weaponizing the functions of the state against the population.”
Human rights groups and the political opposition have long accused President Ortega’s government of severely repressing civic freedoms and his opponents to win elections and keep his grip on the country. Asked about the scale of the abuses, the experts said they had documented more than 100 cases of executions, hundreds of cases of torture and arbitrary detention, and thousands of cases of political persecution.
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