Statement of the Socialist International for the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua

The Presidium of the Socialist International wishes to express its concern over the arrests, detentions and imprisonment of Nicaraguan citizens exercising their political and social rights, as recognised by the Nicaraguan Constitution. In recent months, the number of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience has now reached 225, including 26 women.

Many of these prisoners, such as the former Sandinista commander Dora Téllez, suffer prison conditions in the El Chipote prison that have been described by UN agencies and numerous humanitarian organisations as demeaning, with a limited regime of visits from their families, lack of medical attention and periods of isolation. The precedent provided by the death of former Sandinista general Hugo Torres Jiménez in police custody makes the situation faced by imprisoned Nicaraguan political prisoners and prisoners of conscience alarming.

The Socialist International echoes the values and principles that the Nicaraguan people defended in their struggle for democracy and that the FSLN once represented. The FSLN was excluded from the Socialist International in January 2019 for failing to represent and repressing its own people.

The reports from human rights organisations, including from High Commissioner Volker Türk, and the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) are conclusive about the repression suffered by all sectors of Nicaraguan society and the situation faced by political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua.

Therefore, the Presidium of the Socialist International decides to:

1. Express its solidarity with the people of Nicaragua and all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in that country.

2. Ask for their immediate release.

3. Demand humanitarian and dignified treatment for all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience and that their constitutional rights and the rights agreed to in the international agreements signed by Nicaragua be respected.

4. Organise a campaign for the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua, denouncing the conditions of their imprisonment, in the way that is considered most effective.

5. Entrust the completion of this task to its secretariat, which must regularly inform the Presidium on its implementation.

 

In Solidarity; For Progress