Since April 2018 – when brutal government repression of popular protests against the neoliberal Social Security reform pushed by the International Monetary Fund triggered a profound human rights crisis and the consolidation of a totalitarian government in Nicaragua – nearly 300 feminist or women’s rights organizations have been shut down, dozens of women defenders have been imprisoned, hundreds have been forced into exile, many have been stripped of their nationality and had their family homes seized.

The women defenders who remain in the country face a regime of terror, constantly surveilled and harassed. This has often included their ‘civil death’, meaning the de facto revoking of their right to work, move around and access health and education services, among other. Defending rights in this context is extremely dangerous, especially for women and feminists.

At IM-Defensoras, always in sorority with Nicaraguan women defenders, we have denounced the attacks that they face, serving as their voice to alert and denounce when they have not been able to raise their own voices.