By Ismael Lopez
MANAGUA (Reuters) – The U.N. human rights chief urged the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega on Monday to re-establish fair elections and said she was “concerned” about the country’s lack of accountability for repeated human rights violations.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, in a report read aloud at the Human Rights Council, asked Ortega for a “credible, fair and transparent electoral process” in municipal elections planned for the end of the year.
Bachelet, who was president of Chile from 2014 to 2018, also called on Ortega to hold talks with opposition groups, something that Ortega said in January could happen after the municipal elections end.
“The dialogue should be inclusive of all views, and should aim to ensure a peaceful and democratic solution to the political, social and human rights crisis that continues to profoundly affect the country,” Bachelet said.
International human rights organizations have urged Ortega to hold the so-called “national dialogue” and to free those people that opposition groups call political prisoners.
In her report, Bachelet said her office documented four cases of human rights defenders arbitrarily detained in the country and close to four dozen others imprisoned without due process “in the context of the 2021 elections.”
In a response, the Nicaraguan government said in a statement: “These types of reports are intended to continue disqualifying and denigrating our national authorities and institutions, as well as the legal system that supports the Nicaraguan State, based on false and totally biased information, with the aim of interfering in our affairs, disrespecting our sovereignty and independence.”
Nicaragua has been suffering a deep political crisis since 2018, when a proposed social security reform backed by Ortega sparked nation-wide protests.
More than 300 protestors were killed, largely at the hands of government-aligned forces, Bachelet’s office said in a 2018 report.
(Reporting by Ismael Lopez, writing by Kylie Madry, editing by Richard Pullin)
