HUMAN RIGHTS CRACKDOWN IN NICARAGUA Torture, Ill-Treatment, and Prosecutions of Protesters and Opponents WATCH Crackdown in Nicaragua Torture, Ill-Treatment, and Prosecutions of Protesters and Opponents Copyright © 2019 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-6231-37427 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. 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For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org JUNE 2019 ISBN: 978-1-6231-37427 Crackdown in Nicaragua Torture, Ill-Treatment, and Prosecutions of Protesters and Opponents Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1 Torture and Abuses in Detention ............................................................................................... 3 Abuse-Ridden Prosecutions ......................................................................................................4 Attacks on Free Press and Civil Society ..................................................................................... 6 Lack of Accountability and the Responsibility of High-Level Officials ......................................... 7 Recommendations .............................................................................................................. 9 Methodology .................................................................................................................... 12 Cases ..................................................................................................................................... 14 Background: Repression of Street Protests ........................................................................ 15 Torture and Abuses in Detention ....................................................................................... 21 Cases Documented by Human Rights Watch ............................................................................ 24 Vivian Contreras ............................................................................................................... 24 Lucía Sánchez ................................................................................................................. 26 Jordan Rivas .................................................................................................................... 26 Jossiel Espinoza .............................................................................................................. 28 Roberto Obrera ................................................................................................................. 30 Katia Salamanca and Sandro Villamar .............................................................................. 31 Bryan Quiroz .................................................................................................................... 33 Luis Arnulfo Quiroz ........................................................................................................... 36 Eduardo Manuel Tijerino .................................................................................................. 39 Roberto Cortez ................................................................................................................. 43 Abuse-Ridden Prosecutions .............................................................................................. 44 Counter-Terrorism Legislation ................................................................................................. 47 Cases documented by Human Rights Watch ........................................................................... 49 Medardo Mairena and Pedro Mena .................................................................................. 49 Christian Fajardo and María Adilia Peralta ........................................................................ 54 Nelly Roque Ordóñez ........................................................................................................ 57 Guillermo Sobalvarro Oporta ............................................................................................ 61 Albert Bernard Monroe ..................................................................................................... 63 Dilon Zeledón Ramos ....................................................................................................... 65 Félix Maradiaga ............................................................................................................... 68 Tomás Maldonado Pérez ................................................................................................. 69 Carlos Brenes Sánchez ..................................................................................................... 72 Amaya Coppens Zamora ................................................................................................... 75 Attacks on Free Press and Civil Society ............................................................................. 80 Independent Media ................................................................................................................ 81 Civil Society ........................................................................................................................... 86 Pathways to Legal Accountability Outside Nicaragua ........................................................ 90 Universal Jurisdiction ............................................................................................................. 90 Legal Frameworks for Sanctions ............................................................................................. 90 The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (United States) ........................... 90 The Nicaragua Human Rights and Anticorruption Act (United States) ................................ 92 European Union ............................................................................................................... 93 Canada ........................................................................................................................... 94 International Support for Nicaragua’s National Police ............................................................. 95 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ 98 Summary In April 2018, Nicaraguans took to the streets in large numbers to protest the government of President Daniel Ortega. They were met with violence. A brutal crackdown by the National Police and heavily armed pro-government groups against protesters that lasted several months has left more than 300 people killed and more than 2,000 injured. According to an independent group of experts, appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) with the support of the Nicaraguan government, police and armed pro-government groups committed widespread abuses against largely unarmed protesters, including extrajudicial executions, between April and July. By the end of the protests in August 2018, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that 22 police officers died in the context of the protests and their repression. This report examines what happened, after the crackdown in the streets, to many of the hundreds of people arrested by police or abducted by armed pro-government groups. It is based on research conducted in Nicaragua and Costa Rica and a review of official sources. Many of the people detained during the crackdown on protests were subject to serious abuses that in some cases amounted to torture—including electric shocks, severe beatings, fingernail removal, asphyxiation, and rape. Many injured detainees were reportedly denied medical care in public health institutions and doctors who provided care said they suffered retaliation. Hundreds of detainees have also been subject to prosecutions for alleged crimes in connection with their participation in anti-government protests or their role in social movements that challenged the government, sometimes even prior to the crackdown. Many have been accused by prosecutors of serious, violent crimes. These prosecutions have entailed serious violations of due process and other fundamental rights. Protestors have been held in incommunicado detention, subjected to closed door trials, and denied the right to confer privately with their defense lawyers. In a handful of cases in which Human Rights Watch was able to scrutinize the evidence against the accused, we found that the prosecutions appeared to be based on contradictory or insufficient evidence. 1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2019 The Nicaraguan government has also targeted those who have reported on the crackdown in the streets and subsequent abuses. It has raided the offices of independent media outlets, filed criminal charges against two journalists, cancelled the legal registration of nine civil