Five former Nicaraguan prisoners travel to Geneva to denounce the human rights abuses of the Ortega regime

A representation of the 222 political prisoners released a month ago and expelled for Daniel Ortega The United States went to Geneva on Monday to denounce, before various United Nations ambassadors and diplomats, the violations of human rights by the Nicaraguan regime.

Despite the fact that they do not have a passport because Ortega stripped of his nationalityfive of the 222 prisoners were able to travel with a special permit granted by the US government, he told the news agency EFE who was a presidential candidate Felix Maradiaga.

He was one of five who travelled, along with the also pre-candidates Juan Sebastián Chamorro and Medardo Mairena, and human rights defenders Yaritza Mairena and Solange Centeno, two of 33 women on board the flight which landed at Dulles Airport near Washington DC on February 9.

A few hours before and by unilateral decision, Ortega released the 222 inmates from prison and sent them on a plane to the United States, revoking their nationality.

Through a statement sent by the Foundation for the Freedom of Nicaragua, created by Chamorro, the delegation of former prisoners reported that in Geneva they met with ambassadors and diplomats from European delegations accredited to the United Nations office.

The meetings took place at the European Union delegation, “in the framework of the sessions of the UN Human Rights Council and the parallel meetings of other organizations based in this European city”.

The mission will remain until the next March 18 and meetings with various human rights organizations and official missions are planned.

All this in order to advocate for the extension of the mandate of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, to promote new diplomatic measures against the Ortega regime and to insist that release of the 37 political prisoners still detained.

Thus, Mairena explained the seriousness human violations committed against peasants and indigenous communities, while Chamorro spoke of institutional deterioration, violation of due process and violations of the Nicaraguan electoral process.

Maradiaga, for his part, called on the international community to do “everything legally in its power to obtain the release of Bishop Rolando Álvarez and the other political prisoners” who are still incarcerated in various Nicaraguan prisons.

(With information from EFE)

Continue reading: