Nicaragua: Enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions still used to silence opposition and critics and must end, say UN experts

GENEVA – UN experts* today called on Nicaraguan authorities to release people detained for their criticism of the deteriorating human rights situation in the country, and immediately inform their families and legal counsel of their fate and whereabouts.

Following nationwide demonstrations in 2018, scores of protesters were arrested and arbitrarily detained by Nicaraguan authorities. The experts noted that many individuals were violently arrested without warrants, subjected to incommunicado detention and enforced disappearance, and convicted in flawed judicial processes without adequate legal representation. Many are kept in prison even after completing their sentences.

“What we witnessed following the protests in 2018, and are still witnessing today, is a clear and deliberate systematic pattern by Nicaraguan authorities aimed at shutting down and silencing dissenting voices through the use of enforced disappearance, torture, sexual violence, arbitrary detention and inhuman conditions, as well as the misuse of terrorism and national security related charges” the experts said. They highlighted how even the most basic legal safeguards, including access to a lawyer, a doctor or medication, and family visits, are commonly denied.

“As time goes on, the conditions of those still detained deteriorate further – it is taking a profound toll on their physical and psychological health, and families often have no way of verifying where their loved one is being held or are afraid to report the enforced disappearances for fear of reprisals, and this is most complicated when families are exiled,” the experts said.

Since 2021, at least 427 arrests have been recorded, mostly concerning people with links to the national, municipal or regional electoral processes, such as critics, opponents, students, presidential pre-candidates, journalists, human rights defenders, observers, Indigenous Peoples and territorial leaders. The Government has extended this persecution to any person perceived as opponent and without direct links with political activities.

In letters to Nicaraguan authorities, the experts deplored the existing conditions of detention, notably in La Modelo prison, where prisoners are denied outside contact and allegedly subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including rape, denial of medical care, and long-term solitary confinement in hot, cramped cells, putting their lives at risk and with serious violations of due process.

“Families have spent long periods trying to confirm their loved ones’ fate and whereabouts, faced with conflicting information from authorities about where they were actually being held. One week, guards may say they were transferred – the next, they say they weren’t, even denying the person was ever detained” the experts said. “Keeping families in the dark inflicts on them a suffering constituting ill-treatment and acts as a shroud, allowing authorities to place people outside of the protection of the law, often with disturbing results, they said.

“We urge Nicaraguan authorities to stop arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances, to release all those who are still arbitrarily detained, to ensure that their families know about their fate and whereabouts, and investigate human rights violations that might be committed. The harm inflicted on those in detention and on their family members, has to end.” the experts said.