Nicaragua Rejects 'Partial' OAS Report, Slams 'Fake News'

Nicaragua Rejects 'Partial' OAS Report, Slams 'Fake News'
Fecha de publicación: 
23 June 2018
0
Imagen principal: 

Nicaragua's Foreign Minister Denis Moncada has rejected the new report by the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights (ICHR) as "subjective" and "partial."

Addressing the Organization of American States (OAS), Moncada said: "The report analyzes the social protests that occurred April 18, which did not result in any deaths.

"However, the media, manipulating information, published fake news about the death of a university student in the Central American University, which never happened. This information served as a detonator for the events that occurred from April 19 onward.

"Groups interested in the destabilization and rupture of the country's constitutional order, oblivious to any social claim, fueled riots from that day on, which became ravages, fires and looting.

"The Nicaraguan state expresses categorically its position regarding the events that the ICHR analyzes, which are not within the framework of social protests, rather... an attempt at constitutional and institutional rupture to change... the legitimately elected government."

Moncada went on to say that contrary to claims the protests were peaceful, from April 19 onward protesters began to use violent force, which resulted in numerous deaths.

The ICHR, a branch of the OAS, released a report condemning alleged excessive force by the Nicaraguan government against protests.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday also condemned Nicaragua for allegedly using excessive violence against "peaceful protesters."

"The police and pro-Nicaraguan government paramilitaries have intensified efforts to punish peaceful protesters," Haley said in a statement. She claims President Ortega is "using the political crisis to increase violence and repression."

Moncada countered that it is "not the policy of the state to repress social protests, and even less the excessive and arbitrary use of force by the National Police. It is enough to cite the multiple marches that have occurred in the country, in which no death occurred.

"There is absolute freedom of expression,and what's more this is sometimes abused, spreading fake news that keeps the population in confusion and provoces criminal acts, such as the burning of Radio Ya and Radio Nicaragua, acts which were omitted by the report, even though the life of working journalists was put in danger."

The foreign minister said the 143 deaths reported by the ICHR have "not been dutifully investigated and verified," and that several citizens have already come forward saying their identities were falsely reported as victims.

According to Moncada's statement, the "report deliberately omits all the armed attacks, sieges, harassment and kidnappings" on the part of protesters.

Add new comment

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.