The Government of Nicaragua informed this Friday that they consider the mission of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in their country as “terminated”, this comes only two days after the OHCHR filed a critical report regarding the repression in the Central American country.

This past Wednesday, the OHCHR had stated that it had encountered obstacles “in conducting its mission to investigate and report on the crisis in Nicaragua, mainly due to the government’s lack of cooperation as mission personnel have tried to gather information on unofficial victims. We have not received responses to requests for information, we have not been able to have access to detention centers, except on one occasion in June, we have not been able to carry out missions on the ground outside of Managua,” said OHCHR mission coordinator Guillermo Fernandez Maldonado at a press conference.

Through a letter signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua, Denis Moncada, and directed to Marlene Alejos, regional director of OHCHR, the Nicaraguan government states: “Considering that the reasons, causes and conditions that motivated the invitation of the OHCHR this Ministry informs that it considers the invitation terminated and concludes the visit as of today, August 30, 2018”.

The report of the OHCHR covers the period from April 18 through August 18, and notes:

“Urgent action is needed 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’ rights or simply expressed dissenting views, have been forced to hide, have left Nicaragua or are trying to do so”.

Among the violations and abuses of international human rights law documented in the report are the disproportionate use of force by police, sometimes resulting in extrajudicial killings; enforced disappearances; widespread arbitrary detentions; torture and ill-treatment; and violations of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and of peaceful assembly.

During these months of crisis the total number of deaths are reportedly of over 300 and 2,000 more have been injured.

“After the suppression of protests, the third and current stage of the crisis has seen demonstrators and others regarded as Government opponents persecuted and criminalized. According to information available to the UN Human Rights Office, as of 18 August, at least 300 people were being prosecuted, including on charges of terrorism and organized crime, for having participated in or supported the protests. These trials have serious flaws and do not observe due process, including the impartiality of the courts“, the report says.

Civil servants, including teachers and doctors, have been sacked, and people seen to be critical of the government have been harassed, intimidated and even attacked. The authorities, including at the highest-level, have increasingly stigmatized and discredited protesters and human rights defenders, describing them as “terrorists”, “coup-mongers” or “plagues”.

“Rather than recognizing responsibility for any wrongdoing during the crisis, the Government has placed the blame on social and opposition leaders for what they have termed ‘coup-related violence’ as well as for the negative impact of the political crisis on the country”