Women and girls who have abortions face prison terms as long as two years. © UNHCR/Flavia Sanchez. The forced retreat to salvage lives, amid such an attack, wasn’t considered a defeat. What they had been talking about for some time was the harassment and persecution faced by student leaders and activists who had participated in the protests in April 2018 which had led to Nicaragua making headlines around the world. Also in December, police raided the studio of news channel 100% Noticias and detained, on terrorism charges, Miguel Mora, the channel’s owner, and Lucía Pineda, its chief press officer. In June, pro-government mobs beat and threw stones at Catholic churchgoers gathering in memory of 15-year-old Sandor Dolmus, an altar boy shot in the chest during protests a year earlier. Many were charged with “inciting terrorism” using Nicaragua’s overly broad counterterrorism law or other serious crimes, despite what the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) found to be often insufficient or contradictory evidence. The Nicaraguan government has yet to officially impose any domestic travel restrictions or national quarantine policies. As of February 2019, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) documented at least 777 people arrested during the crackdown. In February 2019, the government and the opposition resumed stalled negotiations. TODAY NICARAGUA - Hurricane Iota, a category 5 hurricane, ... Rosarion Murillo, the "eternally loyal" to her husband and political partner, Daniel Ortega. This also includes the provision of health care, psychological support, shelter and food assistance. Human rights defenders and other critics of the government’s human rights record have continued to be the targets of death threats, intimidation, online defamation campaigns, harassment, surveillance, and assault. In some cases, human rights defenders were arrested and detained through processes marred by due process violations. Nearly two years after Nicaragua was plunged into a serious political and social crisis, more than 100,000 people have fled reported persecution and human rights abuses in the country, seeking asylum abroad. President Ortega has promoted top officials implicated in abuses. Nicaragua is a presidential republic, in which the President of Nicaragua is both head of state and head of government, and there is a multi-party system. An anti-government protester is dragged away and arrested by police as security forces disrupt an opposition march coined "United for Freedom" in Managua, Nicaragua, Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. 19 Nov 2020 Hurricane Iota roars onto Nicaragua as 2nd blow in 2 weeks Nicaragua has, since 2006, prohibited abortion in all circumstances, even if a pregnancy is life-threatening or the result of rape or incest. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) estimate that over 100 journalists have fled Nicaragua since April 2018. Many were subject to torture and other ill-treatment, including electric shocks, severe beatings, fingernail removal, asphyxiation, and rape. TODAY NICARAGUA - Eight months ... Today Nicaragua-November 16, 2020 0. In March, an alleged member of the Sandinista Party shot at demonstrators, injuring three. The Supreme Court of Justice has upheld Electoral Council decisions undermining political rights and allowing Ortega to circumvent a constitutional prohibition on re-election and run for a second term. Ortega’s Sandinista Party secured a 79 percent majority in Congress in 2016, enabling it to fast-track institutional reforms that gave the president direct personal control over the police and army, allowed him to legislate by decree, and run for re-election indefinitely. Through an agreement with UNHCR, Costa Rica has also allowed access to the public health care system to 6,000 of the most vulnerable asylum seekers. However, in September, the Ortega government barred the appointed commission from entering the country. The continuing human rights abuses in Nicaragua have been met with strong regional and international condemnation. More than 88,000 Nicaraguans have fled their country since the crackdown began, the IACHR reports. Forty professors from the National University of Nicaragua accused of supporting or taking part in anti-government demonstrations were also fired in August 2018. The OHCHR also said in September that the Attorney General’s office had opened investigations into four complaints of alleged abuse by police forces against detainees; one complaint was dismissed for lacking credibility and the other three had not advanced at the time of writing. While most fleeing Nicaraguans have gone to Costa Rica, thousands more have gone to Mexico, Panama, and the United States. The very ability of the Sandinistas to continue governing appears to be in jeopardy. Read more Many detainees were held incommunicado, subjected to closed-door trials, and denied the right to confer privately with their defense lawyers. 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