Sharp criticism of expulsion

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has sharply criticized Nicaragua for expelling UN human rights advocates from the country. “It is detrimental to a country’s credibility to expel independent human rights advocates just because they are not prepared to exonerate the government from accusations of serious human rights violations. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega seems to have lost his sense for reality, and he is driving the country into self-isolation,” stated Ulrich Delius, the STP’s director, in Göttingen on Saturday.

Yesterday, Nicaragua’s government had demanded a UNHCR investigation team to leave the country after the experts had published a report last Wednesday, accusing the government of serious human rights violations. The UN experts had accused the Nicaraguan security forces and different paramilitary groups of violent attacks against protesters and human rights advocates. Many activists were intimidated, arbitrarily arrested, or tortured. “These accusations are neither one-sided nor unfounded, as the government claims, but are backed by reports of indigenous human rights activists. Thus, Nicaragua has become one of the world’s most dangerous countries for indigenous human rights advocates who try to defend their people’s land rights,” Delius emphasized. 

Since April 2018, the country has been shaken by massive social protest and anti-government rallies. The indigenous Miskito, Rama, and Rama-Criol are fighting against several government projects – such as the planned construction of an alternative waterway to the Panama Canal, through indigenous territories. The indigenous people’s protests were violently crushed by the security forces. Still, the controversial mega-project might not come into being, because the Chinese investor has run out of money and China has lost interest in the project after taking up diplomatic relations with Panama. 

Headerpicture: Fernanda LeMarie - Cancillería del Ecuador via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0