AMERICA/NICARAGUA - Yes to a Committee of inquiry on violence, but massacres continue

Monday, 18 June 2018 democracy   violence   bishops   youth  

Managua (Agenzia Fides) - The Bishops of Nicaragua and members of the Civic Alliance who are participating in the National Dialogue roundtable, said they were "very satisfied" with the result of the negotiations on truth, justice and human rights with the government of Daniel Ortega.
At the end of a tense and prolonged working session, on Friday 15 June (see Fides 15/6/2018), the creation of a Committee of inquiry that investigates on the massacres and other human rights violations committed since 18 April was agreed upon.
The executive therefore accepted the entry into the country of a new mission of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (CIDH), as well as the delegations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union. The government nevertheless wanted to include the Organization of American States (OAS), while Ortega, in a letter addressed to the Bishops, refused to accept the main request of the population: his immediate exit and early elections.
Nicaragua, however, continues to experience its worst crisis in the last forty years, while the wave of terror that has caused more than 160 dead has not stopped. The climate of distrust in authorities, despite the Dialogue table, is increasing more and more. On the same day, Friday 15th, an armed group set fire to a house, causing the death of a whole family of four adults and two children, only because they were opposed to using the house for snipers. According to witnesses, the group consisted of police and paramilitary forces.
On Saturday morning, June 16, the Archdiocese of Managua sent the communiqué to Fides condemning this horrible crime: "We are saddened by this act of execrable terror that caused the death of six people, including two innocent and defenseless children, for whom we express with affection our feeling of closeness and solidarity to the relatives. In the name of God we ask to immediately put an end to the killing of defenseless people". (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 18/6/2018)


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