A report from the United Nations, released on Tuesday, details alleged crimes committed by the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, including a worsening crackdown on dissent, enforced with a new wave of arbitrary arrests and torture.
The report, based on 120 interviews with victims and witnesses of human rights abuses, as well as civil society groups, covers the 12-month period that ended in May. It describes arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and routine undermining of freedom of expression and association.
The report asserts that 131 perceived Ortega opponents have been arbitrarily detained as of last May, a sharp increase from 54 a year earlier. It notes that another 10 arbitrary arrests were carried out in June and July.
The report includes details of alleged torture and mistreatment of detainees, including rapes and electric shocks. It notes that three men detained reported strangulation of their testicles. Interviewed torture survivors “showed visible signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“Detainees and their families were warned against speaking out about torture or conditions of detention and threatened with losing visiting rights,” the report adds.
The government’s spokesperson and Ortega’s wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, did not respond to written questions about the report’s findings. Ortega’s government has ignored reports from the U.N. and the Organization of American States, calling them part of an international campaign against it.
Ortega has criticized domestic adversaries as “mercenaries seeking to overthrow his government.” After mass anti-government street protests broke out in 2018, Ortega’s security forces launched a violent counterattack, killing over 300 civilians, according to rights groups and international observers.
Since then, the government has arrested or expelled scores of Catholic priests and shuttered several thousand civil society groups, most accused of financial crimes. Critics argue Ortega has sought to silence, remove, or repress all voices perceived as hostile to his government.
Ortega, a former Marxist rebel and Cold War-era U.S.-antagonist, came to power in 1979 and is now serving his fourth consecutive term as president.
