2023-12-18 23:37:30
The International Committee of the Red Cross was established in the country in 2018. ICRC networks
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported this Monday the closure of its offices in Nicaragua “at the request of the Nicaraguan authorities”which puts an end to the humanitarian work that the organization carried out in the country.
“The ICRC regional delegation for Mexico and Central America reiterates its availability to resume its dialogue and humanitarian action in Nicaragua,” the ICRC said.
In 2018, the ICRC was authorized by the regime to open a mission in the country, focused on exclusively humanitarian objectives, such as visits to political prisoners at the request of their families.
“In January 2019, the ICRC established a permanent mission in Managua, and in March of that same year, the ICRC and the government of Nicaragua formalized an agreement to visit detainees,” the organization stated.
The modus operandi of ICRC visits was to “work in silence and confidentiality,” as Thomas Ess, then head of the ICRC mission in Nicaragua and who was subsequently expelled from the country, explained in 2021, so they rarely commented on the condition of political prisoners.
Without access to Chipote and with head of mission expelled
In March of this year it was learned that, despite the fact that the international organization had authorization from the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo to visit people deprived of liberty in the different penitentiary systems and prisons of the country since 2019, as of June 2021 they no longer had access to visit the inmates who were in Chipote.
Likewise, in March 2022, Thomas Ess, head of mission of the ICRC, was expelled from the country by means of a letter, where “the Government of Nicaragua notifies that it decided to withdraw approval from our head of mission” in Managua, he informed this newspaper. the communications coordinator of the Red Cross for Mexico and Central America.
Ess told this newspaper at that time that the expulsion “took us by surprise,” that they did not know the reasons and they ratified their commitment to continue humanitarian work in Nicaragua.
Only international organization left
The ICRC was the only international organization that had been able to enter the different penitentiary centers and verify the situation in which the Nicaraguan prisoners were found. With his expulsion, there is no international organization left to document the conditions in which the Ortega regime keeps political prisoners.
Their action, as they recalled this Monday, has focused in these years on three major areas of work: supporting the Nicaraguan Red Cross; prevent and address humanitarian consequences of the deprivation of liberty; and training activities on international humanitarian law, the legal framework applicable to tasks in which armed and security forces participate, and international human rights law.
However, on May 10, the National Assembly annulled the law that created the Nicaraguan Red Cross as an association, in retaliation for the branches that refused to participate in the repression once morest the civil protests of 2018. And it ordered their assets to be confiscated. In its place, Ortega created a new Nicaraguan Red Cross “as an autonomous and decentralized entity attached to the Ministry of Health”, meaning that this institution is now in the hands of the Minsa.
“As it does in more than 80 countries, the work carried out by the ICRC has an exclusively humanitarian purpose, and strictly adheres to the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. Through direct action and bilateral and confidential dialogue with authorities, people affected by humanitarian consequences, and other key interlocutors, the ICRC works to promote environments that respect human life and dignity,” the ICRC stated.
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