Authorities in Nicaragua have killed, imprisoned and tortured people: U.N.
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - Police and authorities in Nicaragua have killed and imprisoned people without due process and committed torture, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday, calling for an end to violence in which an estimated 280 people have died since April.
Protests arose in April over a plan by President Daniel Ortega's government to trim pension benefits. The government backed down but it's heavy-handed response to the demonstrations sparked a wider protest against Ortega's rule.
The president is a former Marxist guerrilla leader who has held power since 2007 and also ruled the country from 1979 to 1990.
"A wide range of human rights violations are being committed including extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary detentions, and denying people the right to freedom of expression," U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing.
The toll included at least 19 police officers, he said, adding that the reports come from human rights staff on the ground and the backdrop is the absence of the rule of law.
"The great majority of violations are by government or armed elements who seem to be working in tandem with them," Colville told Reuters, adding that the protesters were mainly peaceful though some were armed.
On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that groups linked to Nicaragua's government were using "unacceptable" lethal force against citizens, and urged an end to the violence.
The U.N. rights office called on the government to provide information on two activists missing since they were detained at the airport last week and to open all prisons to monitors.
Two activists, Medardo Mairena and Pedro Mena, were detained by police at Managua airport on Friday and authorities have not told their families where they are despite judicial requests, Colville said.
U.N. human rights officials have been granted access later on Tuesday to visit one Managua prison, La Modelo, which could be a "small breakthrough", he said.
But they want to visit El Chipote prison in the capital where many of those detained in the protests are held, he said.
A law passed on Monday has a very broad definition of terrorism, raising concern it could be used against people simply exercising their right to protest, Colville said.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
