Alianza to Nicaraguan People: Government is Lying

April 11, 2019

Nicaragua

No path forward in Managua, as the Alianza Cívica and the Ortega-Murillo negotiating teams continue at an impasse. Today, the Alianza called a press conference to challenge the government’s claims about progress. There is none, and the government is lying to the Nicaraguan people.

In a prepared statement, read by Carlos Tunnerman, the Alianza indicated that, “The likelihood of a negotiated exit out of the current crisis gets further out of reach each day because of the government’s lack of interest.”

The negotiations stalled on April 3, after the deadline for agreements on matters of justice and reparations, as well as the strengthening of democracy, expired without reaching a consensus. However, the Alianza indicated that the door had not completely closed, and that they were willing to return to the table, as soon as the government showed signs of good faith. All that was needed was compliance with what the accords about political prisoners and restoration of constitutional rights and guarantees.

“This period, that should have been an opportunity for the government to reflect, has turned into a lost opportunity to demonstrate to the Nicaraguan people and to the international community a minimum commitment to the negotiation process,” reads the statement.

A week has gone by, but the Ortega-Murillo administration has yet to go beyond paying lip service to any accords it has signed.

“To date, not a single political prisoner has been released,” read Tunnerman.

On Friday, just before the OAS Permanent Council was briefed on the situation in Nicaragua, the Ortega Murillo administration excarcelated fifty political prisoners, by transferring  most of them to house arrest.

However, as the International Committee of the Red Cross has already compiled a list of political prisoners that are recognized as such by both sides, the Alianza believes that  further delays are unreasonable. “These individuals could be released in the short term.”

Non-compliance on citizen rights continues.

The Ortega-Murillo administration has also shown no desire to comply with the Agreement to Strengthen Citizen Rights and Guarantees, which was broken less than 24-hours after being signed, when police used excessive force against protesters gathered at the Metrocentro Mall in Managua, on March 30.

The violation of constitutional rights has continued, as the police insists on their authority to grant or deny permits. For example, on April 5, the police forbade Unidad Nacional Azul y Blanco (UNAB) from marching in Managua, on the grounds that the organization “lacked legal standing” to request a permit, adding that UNAB “was involved in serious alterations to public order at Metrocentro.”

According to articles 54 and 54 of the Nicaraguan Constitution, people enjoy the right to peaceful and legal assembly, without prior permission. Based on this, UNAB did not request a permit. Instead, via letter, the organization notified intent to march and requested from the police “to ensure the effective exercise of our constitutional rights.”

Unfortunately, the Ortega-Murillo police argued that their legal capacity to “grant permits for the celebration of special events that affect free circulation or may alter normal coexistence” supersedes the Constitution. Based on this interpretation, the police classified the protest as a special event, thus denying a permit that was never requested.

What is even more troubling, though, is the continued reports of Nicaraguan citizens being abducted. UNAB has been posting daily updates, which are compiled through monitoring of journalistic sources and social media.

On April 10, six people were abducted, according to UNAB.

Other groups are denouncing abductions as well. For example, the Movimiento Nacional AutoConvocado Carazo reported the warrantless seizure of Tamara Hernández on April 9.

Today, La Prensa updated its readers on Hernandez’ case, “The officers that kidnapped [Hernández] accuse her of littering the street with blue and white straws. For this action, she is under investigation.” 

In other words, the police grabbed Hernández for what amounts to littering. She has been in custody for the past 48 hours.

So, what is the police doing about the public allegations of kidnapping, in Carazo and elsewhere? One way to find out is to search the police press release archive for kidnapping incidents.

Since July 2018, the police issued 13 press releases about alleged kidnappings in Carazo. With two exceptions, every single one named a person appearing on the list of political prisoners compiled by the Comité Pro Liberación de Presos Políticos. The two individuals who were not on the list, Flavio Castillo Blanco and Jack Castillo López, were identified by the police as part of the group that “built a barricade” outside of the Colegio San José, in Jinotepe. Both were charged with organized crime, kidnapping, torture, bodily harm, assault, and illegal weapons possession. 

According to the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), such charges were commonly leveled against “students, rural and social leaders” in an effort to criminalize “civilians who participated in the protests (p. 5).”

As for this week’s kidnapping reports, the police has yet to address them. However, the institution continues harassing and persecuting excarcelated political prisoners. One of the most recent victims is Leo Navarrete.

Mr. Navarrete was granted house arrest and then grabbed without a warrant on April 4, when he presented himself to the courts to comply with the conditions of his transfer home. Navarrete’s warrantless seizure was filmed and widely shared over social media.

Navarrete was later charged with making threats and obstructing the police. However, he was acquitted when the plaintiff, Officer Enrique Mojica, testified that “he never saw Navarrete acting suspiciously, but the police knew that he met with others to speak against the government,” according to María Oviedo, Mr. Navarrete’s lawyer.

For the Alianza, the government’s unwillingness to comply with any agreements could be resolved once international guarantors are named, a step that the Ortega-Murillo government has refused to take.

Naming an international guarantor is not unprecedented in Nicaragua. In 1988, the Sapoa Agreement that granted amnesty to the contras, designated the Secretary General of the Organization of American States as “guarantor and depository for the compliance of [the] amnesty.”

Government insists that progress is being made.

Every day since Monday, April 8, the Ortega-Murillo negotiating team have issued three press releases declaring its commitment to the negotiations. The government team also reports ongoing meetings, were they “continue working, with the presence of the International Witnesses and Companions, trying to advance the discussion of the pending Issues, according to the approved Agenda.”

 

 

The Alianza Cívica counters that the three “comuniques” are “deceiving.”

“It is not enough for the government to say daily, through deceiving press releases, that they will comply or that they come to the negotiating table. The government must take concrete actions.”

Absent concrete actions, the process has devolved into a farce, as Juan Sebastián Chamorro indicated during the press conference.

“We believe that it is truly a waste of public funds to have a government delegation show up at the INCAE every morning, just to say that they’re working. They are not working, and there has been no progress.”

A delegation from the Department of Electoral Cooperation and Observation of the OAS is expected on April 22. The Alianza demands that the Ortega-Murillo administration present its proposal for electoral reforms “that give the Nicaraguan people back their right to elect their authorities freely, through an early, fair, and transparent election.”

The Nicaraguan crisis will reach one year next week.

Related Posts