New ‘reign of fear’ rising in Nicaragua
Government crackdown on protests has extended to journalists, activists
MANAGUA, NICARAGUA— Reporters for an online news site are writing their stories in secret locations. Editors of the country’s only 24-hour news network have been jailed. And employees of a major human rights organization have escaped into the mountains. Except one. “I am 80 years old, and I am in no condition to go up into the mountains, not even to save my life,” said Vilma Nunez, a lawyer who founded the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights.
In the past few weeks, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s forces have launched a wave of repression against civil society groups and journalism outlets that’s choking off what little remains of democracy in this Central American country. The government recently stripped nine civil society groups of their legal standing and seized their assets. News organizations critical of the Ortega administration have been closed, and some editors have been charged with crimes including conspiracy to commit terrorist acts.
“The government is trying to shut down all political dissidence and impose a reign of fear and terror, targeting its opponents,” said Paulo Abrao, director of the human rights commission of the Organization of American States (OAS). The crackdown marks a new stage in the government’s efforts to destroy a protest movement that emerged in April and swelled into giant demonstrations demanding Ortega’s resig- nation. Police and paramilitary forces responded by opening fire on protesters. According to the OAS commission, 324 people have been killed in the uprising. The government puts the death toll at198, including 21 police.
In December, a panel of independent investigators named by the OAS concluded that the actions by Nicaragua’s security forces could be considered crimes against humanity. They called for an investigation of Ortega, noting that the coordinated campaign by the national police “could only be explained by a decision taken by the maximum authorities” of the country.
Authorities kicked the investigators out of the country shortly before the report was issued. The government responded to its conclusions by accusing the investigators of ignoring deadly violence by protesters. It also alleged that they were “echoing the policies of the government of the United States of America against Nicaragua.”
For months, the government has pursued those involved in the demonstrations, arresting more than 400 and prompting thousands to flee the country. Now it is intensifying its campaign against news organizations and non-profit groups it views as sympathetic to the protests.
Jaime Chamorro, publisher of the country’s most influential daily, La Prensa, said the attacks on the media were worse than the censorship that occurred in the 1980s, when the leftist Sandinista government was fighting the U.S.-backed contra rebels.
Then, he noted, a war was un- derway. “But how do you justify the shutdown of media today, when we are living in peace?” Chamorro asked.
Ortega, 73, was a top figure in the Sandinista rebel movement that overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979. The one-time Marxist fighter went on to lead the government until 1990, when he lost the presidential election.
Over the next several years, as international donors sought to strengthen Nicaragua’s democracy, more than 4,000 civic groups were established, according to Felix Madariaga, the director of a think tank in Managua.
Ortega was re-elected in 2006 and began to consolidate power. Today, along with his wife, Vice-President Rosario Murillo, he virtually controls many state institutions.