NICARAGUA KEEPS ON HURTING US

A trend is emerging in 2024 of increased personal attacks, such as surveillance and harassment of women defenders and activists who were released from prison, digital patrolling, forced displacements, and new patterns of migration repression. Collective attacks were also registered in this period; these are attacks that simultaneously target a group of women defenders, such as online smear and stigmatization campaigns. Cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of women political prisoners also continued.

A trend from 2023 continued in 2024, with rising digital attacks against women defenders banished or in exile who maintain their activities using social media to denounce the situation in the country. Thus, 85% of attacks registered this year have taken place in the digital sphere. Standing out among these are spreading fake news (292); challenging or questioning women defenders’ leadership, professionalism, or ethics (282); ridiculing women defenders and their activities (151); and verbal (96) and psychological (91) violence. These attacks are primarily perpetrated by unknown online users. However, due the contents of the attacks, the suspects identified are persons aligned with Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s regime as well as members of right-wing, religious fundamentalist, and anti-rights groups.

Gender discrimination was identified in 58% of digital attacks documented in 2024. This includes – for example – verbal violence, misogynist expressions, and hate messages based on women defenders’ sexuality, sexual orientation, physical appearance, and age (“fat clown”, “old mustachioed woman”, “coup-leading bitch”, “slut”, “dyke”, “sham of a woman”, “sex changed”). Additionally, attacks sometimes reproduce the language of ultraconservative right-wing groups that seek to preserve the patriarchal order by referring to feminist women defenders as “femi-nazi”, “abortionist”, “progressive trash”, “femi-crazies”, among others.

From the beginning of the sociopolitical crisis in April 2018 until 19 July 2024, 165 forced displacements of women defenders and activists were registered. Thirteen of these cases were documented during the first seven months of the current year. Standing out among the causes of forced displacements are increased surveillance and harassment in their homes, expulsion from the country (banishment), and denial of entry into the national territory. When including family members of the women defenders and activists who were also forced to leave, the total number of forced displacements documented in this period rises to 20. It is also important to note that just during the first 19 days of July, 6 forced displacements were documented, which shows a considerable increase in this method of repression compared to the month before. Forced displacement and exile produce multiple impacts on women defenders and their families, as highlighted in the recent report, “Nadie se va porque quiere”. [Nobody Leaves Because They Want To.]

During the first 7 months of 2024, 16 incidents of migration repression were documented against women human rights defenders and activists, and against their families; 11 against women defenders and activists directly, and 5 against family members.

This year, the mechanisms for migration repression have also diversified. Of these 16 cases, 69% refer to “de facto banishment”, which consists of denying a woman defender and/or her family member entry into the country. In 25% of these cases, a new pattern of attacks can be observed that involves using coercive mechanisms or threats to make the woman defender decide not to enter the country for fear of reprisals against her and/or her family members. This mechanism includes monitoring and surveillance of her social media posts, interrogations by migration authorities, creating lists where their names appear underlined, issuing threats that they should not post on social media information against the regime once they have entered the country and passed migration controls, among other forms of intimidation. One case of “banishment” was also registered, where the migration authorities formally expelled a woman defender/activist.

While the displaced or exiled women defenders continue to be targeted with digital attacks, their family members as well as former political prisoners and other women defenders recognized for their social leadership and territorial work who remain in the country continue to face different types of attacks. In 2024, 65 incidents of harassment, 46 of surveillance and monitoring of daily lives, and 23 threats were documented against these women defenders.

Attacks consist of periodic visits by police agents to their homes with the aim of limiting their right to free movement and conducting checks to see if they have communicated with other activists in exile or if they are participating in meetings. The agents also force them to sign logbooks or reports accompanied by photographs that the police take to confirm that they are in their homes, among other control practices.

Another relevant form of attack that they face is the non-renewal of their identity documents, which places them in a de facto situation of civil death and forces them to stay in their homes isolated, at times without being able to work. Other administrative/fiscal attacks have also been identified, in which the State apparatus is used to exert economic pressure on women defenders and their families.

During the months of June and July 2024, 8 cases of violence against journalists and people connected to the communications sector were documented. These attacks involved women journalists and communications workers as well as women who defend the right to freedom of press and freedom of expression, and they included forced disappearances, raids, and threats that caused many of them to move in order to safeguard their physical security.

At the date of closing this report (19 July), 25 women in Nicaragua were being held in prison for political motives, 15 of whom are women human rights defenders and activists. The majority of them were subsequently released and banished from the country on 5 September, along with more than one hundred political prisoners, after a negotiation between the States of Nicaragua, Guatemala, and the United States. This mass expatriation took place shortly after Nicaragua’s National Assembly approved a package of legal reforms to continue criminalizing and judicializing Nicaraguan and foreign people and organizations, regardless of whether or not they reside in Nicaragua. These reforms authorize punishments that include decommissioning or confiscating people’s assets and bank accounts, as well as other harms to their personal or family patrimonies, among other abuses already practiced by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s regime. Moreover, as had previously occurred with other political prisoners who were released, when these women were banished, they were stripped of their nationality and their assets were confiscated, with serious implications for them and for their families. The situation of women political prisoners who remain in the country deprived of their liberty is extremely worrisome, as they continue to be held in precarious conditions and subjected to cruel, degrading, and inhuman treatment.

In relation to arbitrary detentions and criminalization processes, between 1 January and 19 July, the pattern of forced disappearances continued, whereby police authorities detain women defenders and then fail to provide any information about their whereabouts to their family members during weeks or even months. Additionally, as denounced by different human rights organizations, violations of fundamental rights persisted against people deprived of their liberty, including arbitrary compliance with due process, lack of regular access to a courtyard and sunlight, and refusal to deliver packages and permit family visits. All women political prisoners were held in maximum-security cells, in solitary confinement and under permanent camera surveillance, in clear violation of their intimacy. One of them has been held in solitary confinement since 1 October 2023, without any contact with other women.

The health situation of most women political prisoners has worsened with the passing of time. The impact of the lack of sunlight on the deprivation of the senses, as well as the effects on their physical and psychological health, are significant. Poor sanitation and lack of adequate food, the precarious prison conditions, and psychological and verbal violence contribute to the emergence of new diseases and symptoms and to the aggravation of pre-existing ones: anxiety, insomnia, allergies, gynecological disorders, diabetes, and blood pressure problems, among others. Of particular concern are the effects on mental health, especially anxiety and depressive symptoms.

It is worth noting that during the period covered by this report, it was difficult to accurately document the situation of these women because of the lack of privacy during visits and the self-censorship due to their fear that reporting the attacks they suffer could provoke reprisals against them or their family members. Nevertheless, the information gathered indicates that families continue to experience harassment and surveillance during visits, as well as other forms of psychological and verbal violence such as refusal to provide information, prohibition of physical contact, and unjustified delays, among others. All these conditions of precariousness, cruel, degrading, and inhuman treatment, and the infringement of the rights of women prisoners and their families are being corroborated with the public testimonies of women who were released from prison and banished on 5 September.

Various national and international human rights bodies have alerted about the impacts of political imprisonment on families, who must face economic burdens, social stigmatization, and the fear of being subjected to surveillance and harassment on a daily basis. These impacts appear in women and minors in a differentiated manner. Limiting physical contact and the prolonged separation of children from their mothers – especially during their first years of life – creates impacts on their short-, medium-, and long-term physical and emotional health. Furthermore, political imprisonment exacerbates existing gender gaps, increasing care work for their family members – primarily women – who are not only responsible for their family member who is a political prisoner, but also for other dependents. This affects their lives, with new limitations on their time, their resources, and their life projects.