Nicaragua expels U.N. rights group
Managua,nicaragua— The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is expelling a United Nations human rights team two days after the body published a report blaming it for the violent repression of opposition protests.
Guillermo Fernandez Maldonado, chief of the U.N.’S human rights mission in Nicaragua, said in a news conference Friday that he and his team would leave the country Saturday.
“We put forward the report not to polarize, but rather to make known what we had seen,” Fernandez said. “This has had a lot of media coverage and we did not expect the government’s reaction in this sense. Weonlydidourjob.”
In a statement, the U.N. human rights regional office for Central America said that it had received a letter Thursday from the foreign ministry notifying it that the government’s invitation was over.
“The letter indicates that said invitation was extended with the purpose of accompanying the Verification and Monitoring Commission and that with the reasons, causes and conditions finished that spurred said invitation, the invitation is considered concluded,” according to the statement.
The U.N. Security Council will discuss the situation in Nicaragua onsept.5.
The report released Wednesday by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights described repression in the country that stretched from the streets to courtrooms, where some protesters face terrorism charges.
More than 300 people have been killed since popular protests began in mid-april triggered by cuts to the social security system. Ortega reversed the cuts, but demonstrations quickly expanded and turned into a call for him to step down.