Argentine judge orders arrest of Nicaragua’s Ortega over rights violations

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A judge in Argentina has ordered the arrest of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega over his alleged "systematic violation of human rights," a lawyer who filed a case against the leader told AFP on Monday.

The warrant, lawyer Dario Richarte said, also applies to Ortega's wife, Vice-President Rosario Murillo, and is based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows for nations to prosecute crimes against humanity outside their country of origin.

Federal Judge Ariel Lijo has also ordered the arrest of a dozen other people linked to Ortega's rule.

The crimes Ortega and his wife are accused of include murder, forced disappearances, torture and "deportation or forced transfer of population," Richarte said.

The complaint had been filed in 2022 by a group of prosecutors from the University of Buenos Aires.

Ortega, a 79-year-old ex-guerrilla, has engaged in increasingly authoritarian practices since returning to power in 2007, seizing control of all branches of the state.

His government has targeted critics, shutting down more than 5,000 non-governmental organizstions since a crackdown on 2018 protests that the United Nations said left more than 300 people dead.

Most independent and opposition media now operate from abroad.

Around 450 politicians, businesspeople, journalists, intellectuals, human rights activists and religious figures have been stripped of their nationality since February 2023 under accusations of "treason."

Amnesty International's Americas director Ana Piquer warned earlier this month that nobody in Nicaragua was safe from Ortega's "repressive machinery."

"From indigenous leaders, journalists, human rights defenders and anyone seen as a risk to government policies, the authorities continue to consolidate the climate of fear," she said.