Latin America, June 19, 2019 –Tuesday, June 18th marked the end of the period in which the Nicaraguan government had promised to release all political prisoners detained in the context of the political and human rights crisis that the country has gone through since April 2018. Yet records show that more than 84 people are still held prisoner in conditions of detention incompatible with human rights standards.1
Precisely on June 18th, the government issued a statement designed to make the people of Nicaragua and the international community believe it had kept its commitment. The regime apparently seeks to project a semblance of normalcy that drastically contrasts with reality, marked by a myriad of contradictory facts and evidence including the following:
The persons released from prison, whose legal situation has not been determined, have been systematically subjected to acts of harassment, persecution and intimidation by both State security agents and para-police forces. One example of this is the attack perpetrated against the home and family of Irlanda Jérez just a few hours after her release.
Hundreds of people continue to be the target of arrest warrants that have not been served.
The right to demonstrate and engage in social protest continues to be totally restricted and infringed upon by means of actions of violent repression perpetrated by police and paramilitary forces, such as those that occurred at the Managua Cathedral and the Catholic Church in León on the weekend of June 15th and 16th.
Persons who visibly oppose the government continue to be subjected to attacks including defamation, kidnappings, beatings and torture, among others, by violent groups aligned with the government in complicity with the police.
Neither the legal identity nor the property seized from civil society organizations has been returned to them; those affected include feminist and human rights organizations. Their identity was taken from them by ad hoc laws passed to keep them from carrying out their crucial work of denouncing and monitoring human rights violations and accompanying victims. Some of their facilities are still occupied by paramilitary forces.
The government has not lifted sanctions and restrictions aimed at limiting the freedom of expression of journalists and the right to information of the Nicaraguan people, nor has it returned the property seized from different news media.
The unilateral passage by the government of the “Amnesty Law” aims to guarantee impunity for crimes and human rights violations instead of seeing that justice is done and finding an effective, consensual solution to the crisis.
Persons who are now in exile have no guarantees of a safe and secure return to Nicaragua and most of them are living in precarious conditions.
These infingements give an overview of a situation in which the most basic human rights and democratic freedoms are systematically violated, and in which State and para-police violence converge to maintain an atmosphere of intimidation, fear and punishment aimed at demobilizing the population, inhibiting the legitimate right to protest and silencing voices that are critical of the government.
For this reason, we who are committed to international feminist solidarity raise our voices once more to refute any attempt to normalize the situation in Nicaragua. We call on the women of Latin America and the world to demand definitive freedom for all political prisoners and total freedom for those who have been released, and to express continued support for the Nicaraguan comrades who are still struggling for freedom, equality and effective democracy in their country against the racist, patriarchal, neoliberal government of Daniel Ortega.
As feminists, we call on the international community and especially on the UN, OAS and European Union (EU) to take all relevant measures to assure effective observance of human rights in Nicaragua.
SIGNED BY:
REGIONAL/GLOBAL ORGANIZATIONS
- Just Associates (JASS)
- Iniciativas de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (ICID)
- Puntada con Hilo – Comunicación feminista
- Articulación Feminista Marcosur (AFM)
- Comité de América Latina y el Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de las Mujeres – CLADEM
- Fondo de Acción Urgente para América Latina y el Caribe (FAU-AL)
- Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos (IM-Defensoras)
- Programa Feminista Centroamericano La Corriente
- Red de Salud de las Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caribe (RSMLAC)
- Consorcio Latinoamericano Contra el Aborto Inseguro (CLACAI)
- Grupo Lésbico Feminista Artemisa, Centroamérica
- Hablemos de Derechos Humanos, Centroamérica
- ILSB, Latinoamérica
- La Cadejos – Comunicación Feminista, Centroamérica
- Red de Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir de América Latina y el Caribe
LOCAL/NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
- Acción Solidaria, Venezuela
- Agrupación Ciudadana por la Despenalización del aborto, El Salvador
- Alianza Alternativa Mexicana (AMA), México
- Alianza Política Sector de Mujeres (APSM), Guatemala
- Articulação de Mulheres Brasileiras – AMB, Brasil
- Articulación Feminista de Nicaragua, Nicaragua
- ASEDUCA, El Salvador
- Asociación Ciudadana ACCEDER, Costa Rica
- Asociación de Mujeres Empleadas y Desempleadas Unidas contra la Violencia, Guatemala
- Asociación Para Una Vida Mejor de Personas Infectadas/Afectadas por el VIH-Sida en Honduras (APUVIMEH), Honduras
- Ca la Dona, Cataluña (Estado Español)
- Campaña 28 de Septiembre por la Despenalización del Aborto en América Latina y el Caribe – Punto Focal, Nicaragua
- Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir AC, México
- Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir, Colombia
- Centro de Derechos de Mujeres, Honduras
- Centro de Estudios e Investigación sobre Mujeres, Estado Español
- Centro de Estudios y Capacitación Familiar (CEFA), Panamá
- Centro de la Mujer ACCIÓN YA, Nicaragua
- Centro de Mujeres Candelaria, Global
- Centro Para el Desarrollo Integral de la Mujer (CEDIMAC), México
- Clínica de Orientación Familiar, Educativa y Organizacional Transformación Social, México
- Colectiva Ciudad y Género AC, México
- Colectiva Feminista para el Desarrollo Local, El Salvador
- Colectivo de Mujeres Sobrevivientes Siempre Resistentes, Chile
- Comité de América Latina y el Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de las Mujeres – CLADEM Bolivia, Bolivia
- Comité de América Latina y el Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de las Mujeres – CLADEM Nicaragua, Nicaragua
- Consejo de Mujeres Cristianas (CMC), Guatemala
- Consorcio para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad AC, México
- Coordinadora de Mujeres Rurales, Nicaragua
- Corporación Mujeres Siglo XXI, Chile
- Cotidiano Mujer, Uruguay
- Ecuménicas por el Derecho a Decidir, Honduras
- Feministas Madrid por Nicaragua, Estado Español
- FiLiA, United Kingdom
- Fundación Arcoiris, México
- Fundación Puntos de Encuentro, Nicaragua
- Grupo de Mujeres de San Cristóbal Las Casas AC, México
- Ibero Puebla, México
- Ingeniería Sin Fronteras Aragón, Estado Español
- Iniciativa Nicaragüense de Defensoras (IN-Defensoras), Nicaragua
- Instituto de Liderazgo de las Segovias, Nicaragua
- Las Reinas Chulas Cabaret y Derechos Humanos AC, México
- Mexfam AC, México
- Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres (MAM), Nicaragua
- Movimiento de Mujeres de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico
- Movimiento de Mujeres Segovianas, Nicaragua
- Movimiento Feminista de Nicaragua, Nicaragua
- Mujeral en Acción – León, Nicaragua
- Mujeres de Negro Rosario, Argentina
- Mujeres en Acción, Costa Rica
- Mujeres Libres COLEM AC, México
- Ni una Menos, El Salvador
- Oficina Jurídica Para La Mujer, Bolivia
- Procesos Integrales para la Autogestión de los Pueblos, México
- PROMSEX – Centro de Promoción y Defensa por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos, Perú
- RAÍCES – Análisis de Género para el Desarrollo AC, México
- Red Chilena contra la violencia hacia las Mujeres, Chile
- Red de Abogadas Defensoras de Derechos Humanos, Honduras
- Red de Mujeres Contra la Violencia (RMCV), Nicaragua
- Red de Mujeres de Matagalpa, Nicaragua
- Red de Salud de las Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caribe (RSMLAC), Enlace Nacional Nicaragua
- Red Local, Nicaragua
- Red Mexicana de Afectadas/os por la Minería (REMA), México
- Red nacional de arte y gestión cultural comunitaria GuanaRED, Costa Rica
- Red Solidaria de Derechos Humanos, Michoacán (México)
- Servicios Humanitarios en Salud Sexual y Reproductiva AC, México
- Si hay mujeres en Durango AC, México
- The Handmaids, Costa Rica
1The Nicaraguan government refuses to recognize their status as “political prisoners” although they were arbitrarily arrested and criminalized in protests that have taken place in the country since April 2018. The #SetThemFree Campaign has demanded that the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, make public the updated list of political prisoners who are still deprived of their freedom. There has been no response to this demand.