Crisis in Nicaragua: 59 women have already been stripped of their citizenship

The deprivation of citizenship of 59 Nicaraguan women, including the writer Gioconda Belli, the legendary ex-guerrilla Dora María Téllez, the veteran human rights defender Vilma Núñez and the journalist Cristiana Chamorro, critics and opponents of the government of Daniel Ortega, are IL latest violation of women’s human rights In Nicaragua.

This was denounced this Wednesday by the Human Rights Collective of Nunca Más Nicaragua, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, which accused the Sandinista government of maintaining “the systematic violations of their (women’s) rights, in particular the deprivation of nationality , the exile and confiscation suffered by Nicaraguan citizens”.

In the last month, Nicaragua has withdrawn the nationality of 317 Nicaraguansincluding the writers Sergio Ramírez y Belli, the bishops Rolando Álvarez and Silvio Báez, the former commander of the revolution Luis Carrión, the journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, among others, all very critical of the Ortega government.

List of women deprived of citizenship

The list, led by Belli, Téllez and Núñez, dissidents who fought against the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza Debayle, includes 59 women declared stateless after being accused of “traitors to the country” and “fugitives from justice” by the judicial authorities of that country.

Another woman who lost her citizenship is the journalist released from prison and sent into exile Cristiana Chamorrodaughter of former president Violeta Chamorro (1990-1997) candidate for the presidency of Nicaragua for the opposition with the best chance of defeating the current president in the November 2021 elections.

Also former guerilla commander and historian Mónica Baltodano; former deputy Edipcia Dubón; Sandinista dissidents Suyen Barahona, Ana Margarita Vigil, Támara Dávila and Dulce María Porras; opponents Alexa Zamora, Haydee Castillo, Mónica López, Kitty Monterrey, Ireland Jérez and Berta Valle, wife of the released prisoner and expatriate Félix Maradiaga.

Also included in the list are feminists Sofía Montenegro and Azahalia Solís; human rights defender María Oviedo; peasant leader Francisca Ramírez; researcher Elvira Cuadra; and Ligia Gómez, who was an official at the Central Bank of Nicaragua.

Likewise, journalists and digital media directors Lucía Pineda (100% News), Jennifer Ortíz (Nicaragua Investiga), Patricia Orozco (Onda Local).

Nicaraguan women in resistance

Of the 59 women declared stateless and “traitors to the homeland”, the Court of Appeal of Managua also ordered for 26 of them “immobilization and confiscation in favor of the State of Nicaragua of all the real estate and companies that the defendants have registered in their favour, personally or as a legal person or company in which they participate as shareholders, to answer for the crimes committed”.

The charges concern the crimes of criminal association aimed at damaging national integrity in real competition with the crime of spreading false news through information and communication technologies, all to the detriment of the State of Nicaragua and society.

For the Collective, Nicaraguan women have been living in resistance since April 2018, when demonstrations broke out over controversial social security reforms and which later they became a call for the president’s resignation because he responded strongly.

“After nearly five years of repression carried out by the Ortega Murillo regime in April 2018, human rights violations against a people who denounce impunity and demand justice have not stopped,” said the organization, made up of activists Nicaraguan exiles in Costa Rica. Delicious.

Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which worsened after the controversial general elections of November 7, 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth in a row and second together with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with their main contenders in prison or in exile.

Source: EFE