Nicaragua president executes 40 people, orders hospitals to not treat protestors, UN says

The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega executed at least 40 people and ordered hospitals not to treat protesters injured in anti-government protests, UN human rights groups said Thursday.

The United Nations Human Rights Expert Group on Nicaragua said the abuses were a “crime against humanity”. Ortega jailed opponents and outlawed civilian groups after the 2018 protests, which he claimed were part of a foreign-orchestrated plot to oust him.

The group presented its report in Geneva, Switzerland. The report also condemned Ortega’s government for stripping 222 dissidents of their nationality when they were loaded onto a plane and deported to the United States last month.

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A man holds a portrait of President Daniel Ortega during a pro-government march on February 11, 2023 in Managua, Nicaragua. According to the United Nations human rights group, Ortega killed 40 people. (AP Photo)

According to the report Ortega’s government engaged in “extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention, torture, and other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment”. The Nicaraguan government has refused to recognize the group.

The report found that “70 to 80% of the deaths (of protesters) were caused by firearms, and most (of the wounds) were in vital areas of the protesters’ bodies”.

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The report said those involved in the killings included members of Ortega’s Frente Sandinista party, its youth group, government employees, former members of the military and even street gangs recruited by people connected to high-ranking officials. .

Police and doctors demanded that relatives sign documents renouncing their rights to perform autopsies on victims’ bodies or file criminal complaints in the deaths.