With journalists jailed and activists in hiding, Nicaragua enters a new 'reign of fear'

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

With journalists jailed and activists in hiding, Nicaragua enters a new ‘reign of fear’

By Ismael Lopez Ocampo and Mary Beth Sheridan January 2 at 5:00 AM

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Reporters for an online news site are writing their stories in secret locations. Editors of the country’s only 24-hour news network have been jailed. And employees of a major human rights organization have escaped into the mountains.

Except one.

“I am 80 years old, and I am in no condition to go up into the mountains, not even to save my life,” said Vilma Núñez, a well-known lawyer who founded the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights.

In the past few weeks, President Daniel Ortega’s forces have launched a wave of repression against civil society groups and journalism outlets that is choking off what little remains of democracy in this Central American country.

The government recently stripped nine civil society groups of their legal standing and seized their assets. News organizations critical of the Ortega administration have been closed, and some editors have been charged with crimes including conspiracy to commit terrorist acts.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/with-journalists-jailed-and-activists-in-hiding-nicaragua-enters-a-new-reign-of-fear/2019/01/01/a0222942-0a0f-11e9-8942-0ef442e59094_story.html

[GatoGordo]

1. Pretty sad when a disabled 80 year old lawyer has to fear for his life

But that is the new norm in Nicaragua.

I have friends there who report in regularly. The towns are filled with red-shirted Ortega supporters with guns (in a nation where gun ownership is illegal, except for police and military) who are only too happy to curb stomp any dissenters. The local police, who are outnumbered and outgunned by these paramilitary types can only look the other way, at best.

Every alcalde (mayor) must now swear fealty to Ortega and his Sandinista henchmen... or else.