Category Archives: Nicaragua

UN calls on Nicaragua to end ‘persistent repression of dissent’

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  • Protesters held on ‘trumped-up charges’ of arms trafficking
  • Nine people on hunger strike in Masaya church

The UN human rights office has called on Nicaragua to end its “persistent repression of dissent”, saying that the recent detention of 16 anti-government protesters accused of arms trafficking appear to be based on “trumped-up charges”.

Nicaraguan police said on Monday that the protesters were also suspected of planning to carry out terrorist attacks in the Central American country, which has been roiled by demonstrations against the administration of President Daniel Ortega since April last year.

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Daniel Ortega’s most wanted: Nicaragua’s exiles in Costa Rica

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Costa Rica has become a precarious refuge for thousands of Nicaraguan exiles. In the streets of San José, they continue to feel President Ortega’s reach

This project was produced by Dawning, an organization devoted to investigative journalism. It is an independent effort, self-funded, non-partisan and non-ideological, in the tradition of journalism in the public interest.

Forty years ago, Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo hid together in safe houses around Costa Rica’s capital while waiting for the imminent fall of the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. Today, thousands of their exiled compatriots hide in the same city, San José, awaiting the fall of the presidential couple.

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Latin American rape survivors who were denied abortions turn to UN

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Women from Nicaragua, Ecuador and Guatemala who suffered child rape take cases to UN human rights committee

Four women from Latin America whose lives were put at risk when they were not allowed abortions after being raped as girls are taking their cases to the UN human rights committee.

The women, from Nicaragua, Ecuador and Guatemala, filed cases against their governments on Wednesday for failing to provide appropriate healthcare and denying them abortions, even when it was their legal right to have one.

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Nicaraguan journalist flees to Costa Rica after police raid newsroom

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Carlos Fernando Chamorro goes into exile citing President Ortega’s media crackdown

Nicaragua’s best-known journalist has gone into exile after armed police raided and ransacked his newsroom in what experts called the latest chapter of the country’s slide into autocracy under President Daniel Ortega.

Carlos Fernando Chamorro, the editor of Confidencial, a combative newsletter and website and a member of one of Nicaragua’s most influential families, announced his decision on Sunday.

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Mother of student held over Ortega protest in global plea for help

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Family of activist Amaya Eva Coppens, 24, appeal for help to ‘stop the repression’ of Nicaraguan government

The mother of a medical student facing more than 20 years in prison for protesting against the Nicaraguan government is appealing to the international community to put pressure on president Daniel Ortega’s regime.

Amaya Eva Coppens, a Belgian-Nicaraguan dual national, is due to stand trial in the capital Managua after being “abducted” in a raid by more than 30 riot police and paramilitaries on 10 September.

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Nicaragua violence escalates: Papal Nuncio, Bishops, and clergy…

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On Monday, July 9, the violence was directed against the Nicaraguan clergy, who have been denouncing the Ortega dictatorship's violent repression of dissent. Meanwhile, Pope Francis , was quoted by a Nicaraguan bishop as saying he was "worried" about the crisis, and as having encouraged the bishops "to continue forward in accompanying the suffering people and continue the work of dialogue."

China to carry out live-fire exercise in Taiwan Strait next week

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Members of Taiwan's navy participate in joint training and military activities with the Nicaraguan Navy at Corinto port, Nicaragua, on April 9, 2018. Three ships carrying around 800 crew arrived in El Salvador last Friday to begin a series of visits to allies in Central America, according to Taiwan's Defense Ministry.

White House considers Nicaragua sanctions for Venezuela links

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The Venezuelan opposition met with members of Donald Trump's administration last week to urge the White House to sanction Nicaragua and a company whose joint venture they say is helping to prop up the government in Caracas, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversations. Five Venezuelan opposition party officials and activists met Thursday on Capitol Hill with U.S. State Department officials and staffers for the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees.