Rapid burials, mass graves, ‘doctored’ records: Nicaragua conceals death toll

Nicaraguan authorities have been accused of falsifying death certificates and ordering “express burials” as the socialist regime attempts to cover up a mounting death toll from Covid-19.

The Central American state of 6.5 million people is paying the price for the government’s attempts to play down the coronavirus and ignore almost all global health advice on lockdowns and social distancing.

Family members of victims told the Sunday Telegraph loved ones had died of suspected Covid-19 but official records were scrubbed, while bodies were ferried to mass graves in pickup trucks.

“Workers dressed like astronauts, in yellow and white, pushed him into a grave with an excavator,” Vladimir Rodriguez told the Telegraph after his 44-year-old brother, Elder, died from “respiratory failure” in a Nicaraguan hospital on May 11. “The truth is, it was Covid, but the doctor said they’d received orders not to record this.”

Experts in Nicaragua back Rodriguez’s story. They accuse the government of dozens of “express burials” to hide the true numbers.

“At this time of year, it’s very rare to die of pneumonia,” says Jorge

Miranda, a pneumonologist at Vivian Pellas Hospital in Managua. “Everyone dying of pneumonia is dying of coronavirus. The government is lying to keep its figures down.”

The latest official figures, released Wednesday, claim Nicaragua has only 25 cases and eight deaths. But in cities at the centre of Nicaragua’s outbreak, residents have photographed grave diggers in safety gear interring bodies in hastily dug holes.

Observers had long said the government’s inadequate response would spark a devastating epidemic.

In March, as the World Health Organisation urged governments to adopt social distancing, Nicaragua’s vice-president arranged a mass gathering titled “Love in the time of Covid19”. As time went on, 74-year-old president Daniel Ortega’s disappearace was noted. He was not seen for more than a month.

Then, in mid-April, he reappeared, calling coronavirus “a sign from God”.

He urged Nicaraguans to keep working and rejected social distancing.

Mr Ortega has been named as part of the “Ostrich Alliance” of a handful of leaders who play down coronavirus in favour of keeping their economies open.

Mexico began on a similar track. In mid-March, president Andre´s Manuel Lo´pez Obrador told Mexicans: “You have to hug each other. Nothing will happen.”

But by the end of the month, he’d U-turned, declaring a health emergency and urged people to stay home. Other notable global outliers include Belarus and Brazil, where president Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly dismissed Covid as “a little flu”.

“The difference is that the president of Brazil has been very irresponsible, but state governors have been able to take measures in terms of social distancing and quarantine,” Antonia Urrejola, Nicaragua rapporteur at the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, said.

“But in Nicaragua, there are no checks and balances on executive power — so Ortega and [vicepresident] Murillo determine everything.”

The government is lying to keep its figures down.

Pneumonologist Jorge Miranda