The European Parliament on October 8 passed a forceful resolution warning the Government of Nicaragua that it would apply sanctions on government officials if it passed 3 recently proposed bills – one changing harshest sentence from 30 years to life; another obligating all citizens receiving money from organizations outside the country to register as “foreign agents“, and another bill on “cyber-crimes”which is so broad it includes punishment for “fake news”. This is the press release of the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy reacting to this news.
We Welcome the Forceful Resolution of the European Parliament and We Demand that Ortega Withdraw the Proposed Bills
October 8, 2020
Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy
The Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy welcomes and subscribes to the resolution approved by an ample majority of the more than 609 votes this morning by the European Parliament in terms of the upsetting bills which violate fundamental rights which the regime intends to approve in the National Assembly.
We are grateful for the expressions of solidarity from the European Parliamentarians, as well as the role that they have played since the crisis began in April 2018, being especially concerned about hearing from the victims of the repression. From the Civic Alliance we support the call made by the Parliament to allow a visit to the country of a delegation of Euro-deputies, as well as authorizing the return of the different international commissions to the country. We hope that the regime will not block the entry into the country of the mission composed to visit the country as soon as possible.
We make our own the expressions of the European Parliament when they said that these laws, in particular, the Law of Foreign Agents “will provide the Government of Daniel Ortega a new repressive instrument for silencing not only his critics, but also any person or organization that receives foreign financing, which will increase the number of victims of this repression and will aggravate even more the general climate of intimidation and threats, leading to inacceptable violations of human rights in Nicaragua.”
We celebrate their expressions urging the regime to stop the criminalization of independent voices, communications media, opponents and Human Rights organizations. For this reason, it is vital that the regime honor the call that the Parliament is making to comply with the agreements signed with the Civic Alliance in March 2019, including the liberation and restitution of the legal rights of all political prisoners.
We agree with what is expressed about the need to achieve electoral reforms “needed to ensure credible, inclusive and transparent elections, currently planned for November 2021, all in accordance with international norms” and to adopt the recommendations of the Electoral Observation Mission of the EU in 2011, which included among other things international electoral observation. These reforms in addition are demands of the citizenry in the process of achieving conditions that would lead us to an electoral process that would help to make the transition to a new stage outside of the dictatorship by democratic means.
We think that what the Parliament warned should be taken with the utmost seriousness when they said that if these laws are approved, the European Union “will quickly expand the list of people and entities susceptible to sanctions, including the president and vice president, taking special care to not harm the people of Nicaragua.”
The call of the European Parliament to activate the Democratic Clause of the Agreement of Association between Europe and Central America will bring very serious consequences for the economy of Nicaragua, and above all for the well-being of thousands of Nicaraguans who could lose their jobs because of a regime that violates human rights in Nicaragua. Once again, the abuses of freedoms on the part of the regime have garnered the attention of the international community, who have responded quickly and decisively in defense of the people of Nicaragua in their struggle for justice and democracy.