On July 12, the Nicaraguan feminist leader and journalist Fabiola Tercero Castro disappeared after reporting a raid on her home by the authorities. She has been incommunicado ever since, with no information available on her health or whereabouts.
Tercero’s story is just one example of the inhumane treatment meted out to hundreds of journalists, university students, human rights defenders, religious leaders of all faiths and opposition politicians who have dared to challenge the authoritarian rule of Daniel Ortega, who has used increasingly brutal tactics to cling to power since returning to the presidency in 2007.
In the past year and a half, Nicaraguan authorities have released a total of 357 political prisoners, according to news reports. These releases have brought relief and hope to the prisoners themselves, their families and a nation yearning for the ability to exercise fundamental rights. However, we are reminded that they should never have spent a single day behind bars for exercising those rights.
Furthermore, their freedom is far from complete when it comes with conditions of forced expulsion from their country, deprivation of nationality and the confiscation of property. As we celebrate their newfound freedom, we must also acknowledge the challenges former prisoners continue to face, the many others who remain unjustly imprisoned, and the long struggle for freedom that still lies ahead in Nicaragua.
Opinion
Under Ortega, Nicaragua has experienced the world’s largest decline in freedom over the past decade, and has been rated Not Free by Freedom House’s annual Freedom in the World report since its 2019 edition. Even the regime’s periodic releases of political prisoners are best understood as part of a systematic strategy to suppress dissent, undermine the rule of law, and deny human rights. After being freed from detention, dissidents have been expelled from the country and stripped of their citizenship and assets, leaving them stateless and devoid of the benefits of national identity. They are then forced to rebuild their lives in exile, and family members left in Nicaragua often experience renewed persecution, or live in fear of it.
The pattern of arbitrary detention and release is a common tactic used by authoritarian regimes to suppress dissent. Despite recent mass releases and deportations in Nicaragua, around 40 political prisoners remain in Ortega’s jails, according to multiple news reports.
The voices of these dissidents cannot be silenced simply by forcing them into exile. Democratic governments must stand by these exiled activists, supporting them and ensuring their rights are upheld.
These dissidents, stripped of their nationality, deserve the opportunity to live with dignity and continue their advocacy work. They must be granted access to essential resources — food, housing and healthcare — along with opportunities to fully integrate and engage in their new communities.
The plight of Nicaragua’s political prisoners and exiles is an increasingly familiar one. According to a recent special report from Freedom House, at least 55 governments restrict freedom of movement in order to punish, coerce or control people they view as political threats. Democratic nations must coordinate efforts to combat such violations of human rights, including those perpetrated by the Ortega regime.
The immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Nicaragua and the elimination of political imprisonment as a tool of repression must remain a top policy priority for the United States and other democracies. We must work together to ensure that the regime’s behavior does not continue to serve as a model of authoritarian social control and impunity for other countries in the region.
The world may be watching, but those who believe in freedom and democracy will have to do more than watch. Concerted pressure can and should be applied consistently to end arbitrary detentions in Nicaragua and beyond.
Félix Maradiaga is a trustee at Freedom House and a prominent Nicaraguan political figure who was imprisoned in 2021 after announcing his intentions to run for president. Nicole Bibbins Sedaca serves as the interim president of Freedom House and is the Kelly and David Pfeil Fellow at the George W. Bush Institute.
Part of our opinion series The Unraveling of Latin America, this essay calls on stable democracies to oppose political oppression in Nicaragua.
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Publish date : 2024-10-08 19:29:00
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