Nicaraguan government responsible for at least 8 deaths in custody since 2018, UN report finds

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Nicaraguan government is responsible for at least eight deaths in custody since 2018 when it began a major crackdown on dissent and a dismantling of democratic institutions, U.N. experts said Tuesday.

The report from the U.N. Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua was the latest condemnation of the government of co-Presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, which has crushed dissent since 2018 mass protests and recently canceled elections.

“A State that resorts to enforced disappearance and allows persons to die in its custody falls short of the minimum human rights standards required for credible democratic governance,” said Jan-Michael Simon, the group’s chair.

The report detailed inconsistencies in the government’s account of the in-custody death of Indigenous Miskito leader Brooklyn Rivera, who was imprisoned for 32 months with almost no contact with his family before he died in May.

The official statement after his death linked it to complications following a previous COVID-19 infection, which previous statements in the days before never mentioned. An independent assessment from Physicians for Human Rights said the explanation was “not medically coherent.”

Its assessment also found that the “timing of the illness and the pattern of organisms identified both point to the infections having been acquired in custody or in hospital, rather than in the community.”

The statements around his death could not be independently verified because no independent investigation or autopsy was ordered, the report said. Its authors called on the government to release Rivera’s body to his family for a burial under Miskito traditions.

Murillo said Rivera received medical care and family support throughout his illness.

Following a request for comment on the allegations, Nicaragua’s government sent an email statement declining to respond and saying only “thanks for your interest.”

The report also detailed the failures of care in the deaths of Ortega’s estranged brother Humberto Ortega, former Sandinista guerrilla fighter Hugo Torres and lawyer Carlos Cárdenas Zepeda.

The experts documented the disappearance of at least 161 people since 2018. It called on the government to release information on 29 people whose whereabouts remain unknown and to release anyone detained on political grounds.