Nicaragua’s government committed human rights violations and turned a blind eye while armed mobs rounded up protesters, some of whom were later raped with rifles and tortured in detention, the United Nations (U.N.) human rights office said on Aug. 29.
It documented human rights violations between April 18 and Aug. 18, including the disproportionate use of force and extrajudicial killings by the police, disappearances, widespread arbitrary detentions, and instances of torture and sexual violence in detention centers.
Report Documents Persecution
“We’ve issued a report calling for urgent action to address the human rights crisis in Nicaragua, where the level of persecution is such that many of those who participated in the protests that erupted in April, defended protesters or riots, or simply expressed dissenting views, have been forced to hide, have left Nicaragua or are trying to do so,” outgoing U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein told reporters in Geneva during his last news conference as High Commissioner of human rights.
