OrMu Proposal for Justice and Reparation Agreement Leaked. Police, judiciary, and Ministry of Health Among Entities Tasked with “Implementation”.

April 3, 2019

Nicaragua

This morning, a government proposal addressing the reconciliation, justice, and reparations process in Nicaragua was leaked today. The document, titled Agreement on the Matter of Truth, Justice, Reparation, and Non Repetition, outlines the creation of a “system” to address these concerns.

The entities charged with implementing this system are the Comisión de la Verdad, Justicia y Paz (the Truth Commission, also known as the Porras Commission, established by the Orteguista Assembly), the Ministry of Health, the Instituto de Medicina Legal (the government forensic medicine institute), the Office of the Public Prosecutor, the National Police, the Judiciary, the Ministry for the Family, Adolescence, and Childhood, the Ministry of the Interior, the Nicaraguan Institute for Municipal Development, the Public Defenders’ Office, and the Procuraduría para la Defense de los Derechos Humanos (the government’s solicitor general’s office for human rights).

The government’s proposal does not include any civil society organizations specializing in human rights. Furthermore, the proposal does not include any changes to the legal and criminal justice systems, though it would add two new members to the Porras Commission.

In other words, the system that enacted the repression is left intact. Its institutions are termed “the authorities,” regardless of their level of involvement in what the OAS described “as serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity.”

Now, several institutions that have been at the forefront of the repression are tasked with investigating the truth, adjudicating claims justly, establishing appropriate reparations, and ensuring non repetition.

Among them is the criminal justice system. According to the government’s proposal, the police, prosecutors, and judiciary have jurisdiction to carry out the duty to “investigate, judge, sanction, and make decisions that will establish full legal security.” Furthermore, the criminal justice system is described as acting to “satisfy the rights of victims.”

In December, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) concluded that the National Police, the Ministry of Health, the Office of the Public Prosecutor, and the Judiciary were directly involved in the systematic violation of human rights, by order of the State:

State violence did not consist of isolated facts, bur rather was carried out in an organized fashion at different times and places within the country. The repetition of patterns of conducts and the reaction of State authorities thereafter indicate that these events were not provoked by the individual decision of one or more police officers, nor can they be explained by the acts of unofficial groups of individuals who decided to carry out violent actions to repress the protests, but rather reveal that it consisted of a policy of repression launched and supported by the State’s highest authorities. (GIEI Executive Summary, p. 3)

As for the Solicitors’ Office for Human Rights, this entity has been a non-factor throughout the crisis. However, yesterday the Assistant Solicitor for Human Rights, Adolfo Jarquín, undermined the office’s standing as an entity that can investigate human rights abuses objectively and fairly, when he accused the owners of Metrocentro, a mall in Managua, of violating human rights “because he can’t be protecting people who violate others’ human rights.”

The government’s draft also proposes mechanisms for dealing with paramilitary groups. Accordingly, “the authorities must adopt all necessary measures to ensure the disarmament of those who carry arms without authorization”, or of people who organize paramilitary groups.

Financing of paramilitary groups will be dealt with, but only if it involves “civilian third parties” who were not part of the group directly, but provided money, logistical support, or material support to paramilitary groups. If these actions resulted in “illicit acts”, civilian third parties could be “called” to appear in front of the authorities.

Some of the most visible political prisoners, as well as leading Ortega critics, have been accused of providing financial, logistical, or material support to “armed civilian groups.” One example is Felix Maradiaga,   who was accused “organized crime and financing terrorism”. According to the Office of the Public Prosecutor, Maradiaga used the think tank he directed until he had to go into exile, to apply for funding that was then used  “to train groups of people who later participated in the destabilizing actions that began on April 18.”

Maradiaga’s think tank, the Instituto de Estudios Estratégicos y Políticas Públicas, received over $300 thousand dollars from the National Endowment for Democracy between 2014 and 2018. Most of the funding was for projects dealing with citizen security, with the exception of the final award of $100,500, which went to a project titled “Contributing to Peaceful Transition to Democracy.” Through this project, IEEPP sought to “strengthen the strategic capacity of pro-democracy actors in the country. Dialogue and alliance building among the pro-democracy actors will be facilitated. Working groups will be organized to develop policy reform proposals that will contribute to a democratic agenda. A communications campaign will counter disinformation and disseminate clear messages with the positions and actions of the pro-democracy movement. Finally, humanitarian assistance to victims of repression will be provided.”

It is highly unlikely that this project will be implemented under the current circumstances. IEEPP was stripped from its legal personhood in December, and all its assets were seized. 

The Nicaraguan opposition reacted to the government’s proposal. According to Violeta Granera, of UNAB, the document is “inadmissible,” because “the institutions that operate [under Ortega] cannot be judges because they are parties to grate violations that were committed.”

In similar vein, novelist Gioconda Belli manifested outright disbelief via Twitter. “Unbelievable State, this of Ortega, that proposes itself as judge and party. It has no sense of judicial independence. Shame! They want us to accept them as authorities after they killed without mercy.”

The Alianza Cívica has not issued an official response, but it is expected to make an announcement later today, as it is the deadline for agreements to be finalized.

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