On Thursday, the United Nations identified 54 officials from the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, attributing to them serious human rights abuses and criminal activities within what has been characterized as a “tightly coordinated system of repression.”
The list includes military personnel and members of the ruling party.
In a comprehensive 234-page report, the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua detailed the mechanisms of systematic repression that suppressed anti-government protests beginning in 2018, resulting in at least 350 fatalities and numerous arrests.
According to a statement accompanying the report, the named officials “played crucial roles in arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings, the persecution of civil society and media, campaigns of denationalization, and the seizure of private property.”
The UN experts highlighted that Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who has taken on the role of co-president following a recent constitutional amendment, have established a centralized and oppressive regime that has integrated all branches of government, blurring the lines between the political party and the state.
Ariela Peralta, one of the experts, stated, “What we uncovered is a tightly coordinated system of repression, extending from the presidency down to local officials.”
She emphasized that “these are not random or isolated incidents – they are part of a deliberate and well-orchestrated state policy executed by identifiable individuals through established chains of command.”
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Among those named in the report are Julio Cesar Aviles, the head of the army; Francisco Diaz, the national police director; Nestor Moncada, the presidential security adviser; and Ana Julia Guido, the attorney general.
Murillo did not provide an immediate response to a request for comment from Reuters, and neither did the army or the attorney general’s office.
