Amnesty International Report 1994 - Nicaragua

Members of the police and army were implicated in several possible extrajudicial executions of former rebels, but few steps were taken to investigate or bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations. There were allegations of ill-treatment by police and the army in response to political violence. Armed political groups committed numerous deliberate and arbitrary killings and other abuses. There was growing division between President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro and factions of her own party, the Unión Nacional Opositora (UNO), National Opposition Union. In January several UNO factions broke away from the ruling coalition, officially declared themselves to be in opposition and boycotted the National Assembly. They accused the President of "co-governing" with the opposition Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), Sandinista National Liberation Front, and maintaining Sandinista control over the army. An all-party "national dialogue" initiated in September collapsed after one group of UNO deputies accused another of corruption when they switched allegiance to form a pro-government majority with the FSLN in the National Assembly. In August the US Government suspended economic aid to Nicaragua, accusing Nicaragua of "harbouring terrorism" and of failing to establish effective civilian control over the armed forces, resolve property claims by US citizens, and prosecute those allegedly responsible for human rights abuses. This followed the discovery in late May of a weapons cache said to belong to a faction of the demobilized Salvadorian armed opposition, together with documents suggesting the existence of an international kidnapping ring involving Latin American and European armed opposition groups. In September President Chamorro announced a series of reforms to the armed forces and said that General Humberto Ortega would relinquish office as head of the army in 1994 and that there would be changes to the military intelligence hierarchy. The measures were vociferously challenged by the armed forces, prompt-ing renewed controversy about the role of the military. The Supreme Court failed to issue a ruling, due in January, on a challenge to a provision of the penal code which could result in the imprisonment of people solely on the basis of their homosexuality (see Amnesty International Report 1993). There was continued violence by rival armed groups of ex-combatants: recontras, (former members of the Nicaraguan Resistance (NR) or "contra" who had fought against the previous Sandinista government); and recompas, (mainly ex-army members). Against a backdrop of political polarization, economic deprivation and growing lawlessness, both groups of ex-combatants refused to give up their arms, despite a demobilization program which had been initiated under international supervision following the end of the armed conflict and the election of President Chamorro in 1990. In August a delegation of about 40 government officials, including two vice-ministers, was taken hostage by a recontra group in Quilalí, Nueva Segovia region. The group's demands included the removal of General Ortega. In reprisal, a recompa group took over 30 people hostage the next day in UNO headquarters in Managua, the capital, among them Vice-President Virgilio Godoy. The group demanded the release of the government officials held hostage in Quilalí. All hostages were released unharmed following mediation efforts involving national human rights groups. Both groups carried out dozens of deliberate and arbitrary killings and other abuses, particularly in the northern regions of Jinotega and Matagalpa. On both sides there was evidence in some cases of collusion by different branches of the government, and in the majority of cases the authorities failed to investigate and prosecute those responsible. Among the victims of abuses committed by recontra groups were members of agricultural cooperatives, such as Patricio Montano Téllez and his sons, Demetrio and David, who were reportedly tortured and killed in San Martín, Juigalpa region, in January. Also targeted, according to certain sources, were FSLN supporters, including Juan Dávila Pérez and two of his children, who were murdered in Waslala, Matagalpa region, in February. Apparent political killings attributed to recompa groups included the murder in February of the president of the Partido Nacional Conservador, National Conservative Party, Miguel Rivera Rocha. In November three former army officers were found guilty of the November 1992 killing of a prominent landowner, Arges Sequiera Mangas (see Amnesty International Report 1993). However, the accused were tried in absentia and had not been apprehended by the end of the year. The President signed an amnesty law in September granting immunity from prosecution to members of rearmed groups who had committed "political" crimes before 28 August. The law had originally been approved by the National Assembly in August, but was subsequently amended so as to benefit those responsible for the August hostage-takings. Although some groups disarmed under the terms of the amnesty, several recontra and recompa groups remained active at the end of the year and the army launched special operations in the north with the stated intention of eliminating them. Earlier, in July, when army troops reclaimed the town of Estelí which had been occupied by a recompa group, dozens of civilians were killed or wounded. There were widespread allegations that soldiers had used excessive and disproportionate force against unarmed civilians. Members of the army and National Police were implicated in several killings of former NR members in 1993 and previous years. A farmer from Pantasma, Jinotega region, who had demobilized from the NR in 1990, was reportedly killed in August by an army lieutenant, who was already facing charges of homicide and had been confined to barracks by the Auditoría Militar, military tribunal. Witnesses to the killing said they had been threatened by the lieutenant; neither the killing nor the threats were apparently the subject of a judicial investigation. In March the Comisión Tripartita, Tripartite Commission, made up of representatives of the government, the Catholic Church and the Comisión Internacional de Apoyo y Verificación (CIAV), International Commission of Support and Verification - a body of the Organization of American States - published its findings on 10 killings of former NR members, including three killings allegedly committed by the army between 1990 and 1992 and one by the police in 1991. The Tripartite Commission said that Miguel Centeno Valenzuela had been shot dead in cold blood by two members of the National Police in December 1991. Proceedings against the officers allegedly responsible had been opened by the military tribunal in late 1992, but the two did not appear to have been detained and no progress was reported. The Commission also found a series of irregularities in the preliminary police investigation, including falsification of the testimony of witnesses. Regarding the killing of former NR member Harold Benavides Cortéz in February 1991, the Commission revealed that the two army officers allegedly responsible had been released without charge in May 1991, after a military tribunal investigation which had taken testimony only from other soldiers. The Commission found that in other cases civilians and recompa forces had killed former NR members but had escaped prosecution because in all but one case official investigations had been negligent and had involved a police or military cover-up. The Commission recommended prosecution of those allegedly responsible for the killings. However, in a report in December the Commission criticized the lack of compliance with its recommendations and documented further cases of killings involving government forces. It also called for the scope of military jurisdiction over investigations into abuses to be restricted. Evidence continued to come to light of police and army complicity in recompa abuses. In one of the cases investigated by the Commission, CIAV observers and other witnesses reportedly saw army members collaborating with recompa forces who had held a police delegation captive in Wambl n, Matagalpa region, in December 1991 and had executed the local chief of police, a former NR member. Investigations into the case were not opened until late 1992, and did not result in the prosecution of those allegedly responsible. No progress was made in the case of Jean Paul Genie Lacayo, a 17-year-old shot dead in 1990 by escorts of General Ortega. An appeal presented by relatives to the Supreme Court in 1992 challenging military jurisdiction over the case was rejected in December (see Amnesty International Report 1993). Incidents of ill-treatment by police were reported, often in the context of labour conflicts or violence by armed groups. Many of those arrested or involved in disturbances during a transport workers' strike in September sustained injuries as a result of apparent excessive force by police. Nine FSLN youth activists detained in connection with disturbances in Portezuelo in September claimed to have been beaten on arrest and in police custody. The Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos (CENIDH), Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights, lodged a formal complaint but no official investigation was undertaken. There were also isolated cases of ill-treatment of criminal suspects, including the beating of a minor, Ricardo José Sabogal Viales, in October, by the National Police in Managua. Again, CENIDH's complaint to the authorities appeared not to produce any official response. Three former Spanish citizens of Basque origin who had been granted Nicaraguan citizenship were summarily expelled from Nicaragua in May. Javier Larreategui Cuadra, Sebasti n Etxaniz and Francisco Azpiazu were detained on 25 May in connection with the discovery of an arms cache in Managua two days earlier. They were held by police beyond the legal limit of 72 hours and then expelled to Spain against their will on 30 May, despite an order from a judge that they should be released and should remain in Nicaraguan territory and despite fears that they would be at risk of torture or ill-treatment in Spain, where they were wanted for serious crimes linked to the activities of an armed Basque separatist group. After five days in custody on arrival in Spain, during which they were not physically ill-treated, the men were transferred to prison in Madrid under judicial investigation. In June Amnesty International asked the government to obtain guarantees that the three men expelled to Spain would not be subjected to ill-treatment there and to clarify the apparent procedural irregularities. The authorities replied that the three had obtained their Nicaraguan nationality fraudulently, that procedures for their expulsion had been entirely in accordance with national laws, and that the government could take no position with regard to the risk of human rights violations in another sovereign country. In August Amnesty International publicly condemned the taking of hostages by recontra and recompa groups, calling for their immediate and unconditional release. In October the organization wrote to President Chamorro voicing concern that the September amnesty law would perpetuate the impunity with which both governmental and non-governmental forces had been allowed to commit deliberate and arbitrary killings and other abuses since she took office. It expressed dismay that the law's scope was extended following the August kidnappings so as to allow those responsible to benefit. In connection with the occupation of Estelí, the transport workers' strike and the political violence in August, Amnesty International called for preventive measures to be taken to avoid human rights abuses, including steps to ensure that the use of force by law enforcement officials conformed to international standards and that human rights violators were brought to justice. In a detailed reply in December, the President argued that the amnesty law was necessary to prevent further violence and to encourage those who had taken up arms to return to civilian life.