Victims of Daniel Ortega’s dictatorship arrive in Geneva to testify before the UN Human Rights Council

A dozen direct victims of human rights violations committed by Daniel Ortega’s regime have arrived in Geneva to offer his testimony on the crimes against humanity recorded in Nicaragua since 2018 before the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC).

They represent some of the 19 human rights organizations that have joined the coalition “#NicaraguaFight”who sent an important representation to Geneva to tell their experiences, coinciding with the presentation to the HRC of the first report of the team of experts created by the UN to investigate and collect evidence of the situation in Nicaragua.

These experts revealed last week that Ortega, his wife and Vice President, Rosario Murilloas well as senior officers of the national police and other state entities, have perpetrated crimes against humanity.

In statements prior to her participation in the CDH, the activist Joseph Mass told the news agency EFE who went to the UN to “denounce the barbarism committed by the government”, including the murder of his son, a 21-year-old who took part in the protest mobilizations which called in 2018 for a democratic turn in the regime. ‘Ortega.

“The international community must realize that in Nicaragua we have a repressive and bloody dictatorship, one of the bloodiest in Latin America, and we are being massacred,” he said.

Meza will represent this Tuesday -in the dialogue between civil society organizations and the HRC when the situation in Nicaragua is addressed in the latter- the april momsa group of around 100 families who lost a son, a daughter and another parent in the crackdown on the protests.

“I represent the Asociación Madres de Abril, but I am a direct victim, denouncing what they did to my son, a university student who was murdered for having a different opinion. We cannot build a democracy with murders, forgetting these crimes against humanity,” he reflected.

Meza also lives in exile with her youngest son.for whose life he also came to be feared.

Journalist Tarama Morales Orozco is also in Geneva to denounce the situation of the press in Nicaragua.

The activist’s mother, also a journalist, was recently stripped of her nationality, a measure by the Sandinista regime that affected a total of 316 people, 222 of whom were immediately deported to the United States.

The two journalists, mother and daughter, are currently in exile in Spain, after the fierce campaign against the independent press, which led to the closure of more than 40 media and the criminalization of this profession.

The consequence is that “more than 175 journalists had to take refuge abroad and now they are working in very precarious conditions and doing other jobs to earn a living,” Morales said. EFE.

“Despite everything, we continue to work from Costa Rica, the United States or Spain, reporting, doing journalism from abroad and denouncing barbarism against the population,” he said.

The journalist said that in Nicaragua “there are a few journalists” who work anonymously to avoid persecution and to avoid being imprisoned.

Wendy Floresof the “Nicaragua Nunca Más” collective, will be another of the victims who will speak at the CDH, among those who are in Geneva to denounce the situation on different platforms.

They also include Lizeth Davila, Juan Carlos Arce, Gonzalo Carrión, Alexandra Salazar Rosales and Olga Valle.

(With information from EFE)

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