The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced the closure of its offices in Nicaragua this Monday. “At the request of the Nicaraguan authorities”The organization is ending its humanitarian work in the country.
“The ICRC Regional Delegation for Mexico and Central America reiterates its presence in Nicaragua to resume its dialogue and humanitarian operations,” the ICRC said.
In 2018, the ICRC was authorized by the regime to open a mission in the country, focusing exclusively on humanitarian objectives, such as visiting political prisoners at the request of their families.
“In January 2019, the ICRC established a permanent mission in Managua, and in March of the same year, the ICRC and the Nicaraguan government formalized an agreement to visit prisoners,” the organization said.
The function of the ICRC visits was to “work quietly and covertly,” Thomas S., then head of the ICRC mission in Nicaragua and later exiled from the country, explained in 2021, so they rarely commented on the political situation. Prisoners.
Without access to the Chipotle and the task leader was ejected
From 2019 to June, the international organization was authorized by the regimes of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo to visit people deprived of their liberty in the country’s various prisons and jails, which became known in March this year. 2021 They no longer have access to see the inmates at Chipotle.
Likewise, in March 2022, Thomas S., the head of mission of the ICRC, was expelled from the country in a letter where “the government of Nicaragua announces that it has decided to withdraw the recognition of our embassy” in Managua. The communications coordinator of the Red Cross for Mexico and Central America told this newspaper.
Ess told this newspaper at the time that the evacuation “took us by surprise,” that they did not know the reason, and that they acknowledged their commitment to continuing humanitarian work in Nicaragua.
Only the international system remains
The ICRC is the only international organization that has been able to enter various prisons and verify the conditions under which Nicaraguan prisoners were found. With his ouster, there is no international organization to document the conditions under which the Ortega regime holds political prisoners.
Their action, commemorated this Monday, focuses on three main areas of work during these years: supporting the Nicaraguan Red Cross; Preventing and addressing the humanitarian consequences of deprivation of liberty; and training activities on international humanitarian law, the legal framework applicable to operations involving armed and security forces, and international human rights law.
However, on May 10, the National Assembly repealed the law that created the Nicaraguan Red Cross as an association, in response to branches refusing to participate in the crackdown on civil protests of 2018. It also ordered the confiscation of their properties. In its place, Ortega created a new Nicaraguan Red Cross “as an autonomous and decentralized agency attached to the Ministry of Health,” meaning the agency is now in Minza’s hands.
“As it does in more than 80 countries, the work carried out by the ICRC has an exclusively humanitarian objective 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 said.
