Saint Joseph/Nicaraguan human rights defender Wendy Flores warned this Wednesday about the “transnational repression” carried out by the Government of Nicaragua, led by husband and wife and co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, against opponents and critics in exile.
“The Collective to which I belong has documented more than 200 cases of threats, attacks and other actions in exile, as well as nine executions in Honduras and Costa Rica from 2019 to 2025,” warned lawyer Flores, vice president of the NGO Colectivo Nicaragua Ahora, during a virtual intervention before the Human Rights Subcommittee of the European Parliament.
The activist, who denounced forced exile, arbitrary loss of nationality and statelessness “as part of the transnational repression of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship,” stated in her presentation that the organization’s team, based in San José, “faces high risks to their lives and safety in Costa Rica for continuing to raise their voices.”
The organization’s team, based in San José, “faces high risks to their lives and safety in Costa Rica for continuing to raise their voices”
“For this reason we consider it essential to carry out strategies that ensure the recovery of the identity of those who have suffered exile, denationalization and statelessness,” he advocated.
The European Union was asked to develop actions such as filing lawsuits against Nicaragua before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for violation of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and for violation of the Convention against Torture.
Also facilitate the mechanisms to grant nationality to people in a condition of statelessness and/or de facto statelessness, and continue to provide international protection to victims and denounce the main perpetrators of extraterritorial crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court.
Flores, who introduced himself as one of the 873,000 people who have left Nicaragua for security reasons since April 2018, when a popular revolt broke out over a controversial social security reform, said that in addition to exile, from February 2023 to date “the Ortega Murillo dictatorship has taken away the nationality of 452 Nicaraguans.”
At least 33% of those denationalized are older adults and it has been documented that 292 Nicaraguans have been prevented from entering the country
“Along with this, their assets were expropriated, their names were canceled from the Civil Registry of people, affecting boys and girls, whose birth certificates were altered to hide the father or mother of the minor,” he indicated.
Likewise, he denounced that at least 33% of those denationalized are older adults and it has been documented that 292 Nicaraguans have been prevented from entering the country, “in a considerable act of exile that, together with the denial of identity documents, makes them de facto stateless, which has as consequences a series of violations of their human rights.”
“Exile, denationalization and statelessness have become palpable evidence of the cruelty of the regime, which in its desire to continue silencing critical voices and perpetuate itself in power, has extended its persecution outside the country,” he noted.
