THE SANDINISTA WAR ON HUMAN RIGHTS
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Document Creation Date:
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15
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Publication Date:
July 19, 1983
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FA"ft
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July 19, 1983
THE SANDINISTA WAR ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Four years ago today, the Sandinista revolution toppled the
Somoza regime, which had ruled Nicaragua for 43 years. The rebels'
victory was widely hailed as a triumph over what was seen as one
of the worst violators of human rights in the Americas. Ironic-
ally--and tragically for the close to three million Nicaraguans--
the Sandinistas have proved that they surpass their predecessors
in abusing the basic rights of their own people. What has erupted
in Nicaragua is an all-out war on the human rights of all those who
oppose the regime. The victims number in the thousands and include
journalists, businessmen, politicians, Catholics, Moravians, the
Miskito Indian tribes and even Nicaragua's entire Jewish community.
Today's human rights violations affect all aspects of Nicara-
guan life. There are restrictions on free movement; torture; denial
of due process; lack of freedom of thought, conscience and religion;
denial of the right of association and of free labor unions.
Since the Marxists took over, Nicaraguan Jews have seen their
human rights systematically violated. Their property has been
confiscated and they have been arrested arbitrarily and physically
harassed. Inspiring this sudden anti-Jewish campaign, in part,
is the intimate ideological relationship between the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Sandinistas.
Catholics have been subject to similar attacks. Before their
victory, the Sandinistas enjoyed the backing of Archbishop Miguel
Obando y Bravo, of Nicaragua. Once in power, the Sandinistas dis-
covered that the Archbishop's commitment to human rights, civil
liberties and social justice was more than rhetoric. As a result,
according to official church reports, prominent clerics are defamed
and attacked physically. Religious education is under siege.
The Moravian Church, too, is under assault, particularly along
Nicaragua's Eastern Atlantic coast, where it claims the loyalties
Note: Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation or as an
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of 80 percent of the population. The Sandinistas denounce this
church as a center of counter-revolutionary activity. Some
Moravian pastors now must submit their Sunday sermons for govern-
ment approval. One pastor reported that the censors asked him:
"Why do you always preach on sad themes like sin and redemption?
Why don't you preach about liberation like some of the Catholics
do?"
Mormons, Baptists and Seventh-Day Adventists, meanwhile, have
seen their churches seized and then returned only under the condi-
tion that their pastors not criticize the revolution or the
Sandinista programs.
One of the most brutalized communities is that of the Miskito
Indians of the Atlantic Coast. Independent human rights organiza-
tions have been kept from visiting Miskito detention camps. None-
theless, the record of the Sandinista atrocities against the Miskito
is widely known. Among these atrocities are: arrests of the entire
Indian leadership; banning of the Indian organization Misurasata;
forcible relocation of over 15,000 Miskitos; total destruction of
39 villages, including livestock, personal effects, crops, fruit
trees; killing, arrest and torture of hundreds of Indians; and
the imposition of harsh military rule on the entire Indian region.
Similar methods have neutralized political parties that do
not belong to the Sandinista Front, as well as independent labor
unions and their leaders.
It has taken four years of cruel repression for the reality
of human rights violations in Nicaragua to become undeniable.
Recent statements by a former Sandinista Intelligence officer dis-
closed that some 5,000 Nicaraguans were slaughtered in the early
months of Sandinista rule. The Sandinistas have assassinated and
kidnapped their opponents whether inside or out of Nicaragua.
Examples: the murders of Commander Bravo in Honduras, Jorge
Salazar in Managua, Hector Frances in Costa Rica, and Anastasio
Somoza in Paraguay. Repression is not limited to political foes.
Nicaraguans who refuse to bow to Sandinista rule are likely to be
harassed, arrested or tortured. If an individual fails to conform
to Sandinista standards, he will be prohibited from obtaining em-
ployment, food and shelter. Enforcing this is a vast domestic
security network. A Nicaraguan today, in sum, enjoys few human,
civil or political rights.
The Permanent Commission of Nicaraguan Human Rights (CPDH),
was founded in April 20, 1977, in Managua. During the Somoza
regime, reports of human rights violations by the regime were
allowed to be published daily by the CPDH and were frequently
quoted by the international press. Amnesty International, for
example, was able to monitor violations in Nicaragua based on the
reports of the Commission.
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In a 1982 interview in Washington, D.C., Dr. Jose Esteban
Gonzalez, then National Coordinator of the Permanent Commission,
said that under Somoza he could "call the editors of major U.S.
newspapers and my statements concerning violations of human rights
by the Somoza regime made headlines the following day. Today,
they don't even answer my calls." At the time of his visit to
Washington, Dr. Gonzalez had been forced into exile after numerous
threats from the Sandinistas and several closures of the Commission's
offices in Managua. Dr. Gonzalez believed that he could no longer
serve as a functional member of the Commission inside Nicaragua,
and has since started a human rights group in exile.
The Commission's chairmanship was assumed by Javier Sabala;
the present coordinator in Managua is Martha Baltodano, who files
monthly reports from Managua under difficult conditions. The
Commission's reports of continued violations of human rights by
the Sandinistas are filed with the International Committee of the
Red Cross and Amnesty International.
Under Somoza, 1,000 political prisoners at most were jailed
without due process. Amnesty International conducted an interna-
tional campaign on behalf of them. It was not until June 22, 1982,
however, that Amnesty International first urged the "Nicaraguan
government to review the cases of over 3,000 people convicted after
the 1979 revolution of criminal offenses committed under the pre-
vious government."
The request was made after evidence mounted that 4,331 Nicara-
guans had been convicted by special Sandinista tribunals after the
fall of Somoza. The Amnesty International report, however, ignored
the plight of the thousands of Miskitos who were evicted from their
villages and who were made to walk eight hours to a "relocation
center." Nor was mention made of the burning and killing of hun-
dreds of other Miskitos including the destruction of 39 villages
along the Coco River, bordering on Honduras.
NICARAGUAN LABOR VIOLATIONS
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU),
officially protested to the Nicaraguan government on December 18,
1981, concerning the restrictions placed on attendance at a union
training course given by the International Center for Advanced and
Vocational Training in Turin, Italy. One candidate was selected
from the government-controlled Sandinist Confederation of Nicara-
guan Workers (CST) and one from the Confederation of Trade Union
Unity (CUS), an independent free trade union. The CST candidate
was approved, but the Nicaraguan government denied permission to
the representative of CUS. The government dismissed the incident
as a bureaucratic mistake--the candidates had not cleared exit
permits with the Ministry of Planning, they said--and neither
candidate went.
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In February and October 1982, the International Organization
of Employers (IOE), filed complaints charging the government of
Nicaragua detained Enrique Bolanos Gayer, acting Chairman of the
Supreme Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP), to prevent his par-
ticipation in a joint economic forum between the governments of
Nicaragua and Venezuela. Also restricted or detained were Enrique
Dreifus, Chairman of COSEP, Ismael Reyes, Vice-Chairman of COSEP,
William Baez, Assistant Director of the Nicaraguan Development
Institute, Rosendo Diaz, Executive Secretary of the Union of Agri-
cultural Producers, and Alejandro Burgos, Executive Director of
COSEP.
The Nicaraguan government denied the charges and Dreifus and
his associates later were arrested. Many labor and private enter-
prise representatives are now in exile, due to restrictions imposed
by the Sandinista regime.
Since the creation of the Sandinista-controlled union, CUS
has come under attack, and its members have been repeatedly har-
assed. Members of CST have been rewarded by the Sandinistas for
their loyalty. As a result it is increasingly difficult for the
independent CUS to survive as a free trade union.
THE SYSTEM OF REPRESSION
One of the first rights to be attacked by the Sandinistas
was freedom of the press. The new regime censored La Prensa, the
country's only independent newspaper. For years it was the voice
of opposition to the Somoza regime. It now is repeatedly shut and
is heavily censored. Copy must be submitted to the censors seven
hours before printing. This directly violates the Sandinista's
own laws "guaranteeing" freedom of expression and thought. The
press is not allowed to criticize the Sandinista government.
From the beginning, the new regime instituted the "block"
system under the General Directorate of State Security (DGSE),
and under the direct supervision of intelligence sector F7. This
is a "spy on your neighbor" system that encourages citizens to
report to the authorities those who do not work for the revolution.
Should a member of the community be reported as a counter-revolu-
tionary, the security representatives of the "block" may come and
harass the neighbor, destroy his property and stone his house.
The neighbors observe the punishment and heed the warning: do
not work against the revolution. This is the system common to
Soviet-bloc countries.
While elements of the Somoza National Guard tortured political
opponents, they did not employ psychological torture. The San-
dinistas do. The State Security torture facilities are patterned
after Soviet KGB methods. In fact, the Managua prisons were
designed from Cuban plans which, in turn, originated in Moscow.
The Nicaraguan interrogators are trained by Cubans who have at
least five years experience of working in the Soviet Union. One
of the early victims of this torture was Miskito leader Stedman
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Fagoth, now leader of one of the groups fighting against the
Sandinistas.
A particularly sadistic torture method used by Sandinistas is
the "vest-cut." As an example of what happens to anti-government
sympathizers, captured counter-revolutionaries are taken to the
nearest village where their arms and legs are severed, causing them
to bleed to death.
One of the most common ways of killing prisoners in Managua
is through the "ley de fuga" or "escape law." Prisoners are taken
from jail and driven to the countryside. They are told they
can go free and are shot as they start to walk away. Later, the
prisoners are described as having been killed trying to escape.
This method was used against many suspected Somoza supporters.
The Nicaraguan Jewish community, which numbered 200 in the
early 1970s, was reduced to approximately 50 individuals after
the Sandinista takeover in July 1979. The Sandinistas have driven
all Jews from the country. With the support of the Palestine
Liberation Organization, an anti-Semitic campaign began in 1977
when Sandinistas defaced Managua's synagogue with anti-Jewish and
anti-Israel slogans. In 1978, the same synagogue was firebombed.
After the revolution, Jews who had been residing temporarily outside
Nicaragua were not permitted to return. When 70-year-old Abraham
Gorn was identified as the president of the Nicaraguan Jewish com-
munity, he was jailed for two weeks and forced to sweep streets.
His factory was expropriated, his bank account seized and he was
evicted from his home. Though there are no longer any Jews in
Nicaragua, anti-Semitism thrives. The July 15 and 17, 1982,
editions of the government-controlled newspaper Nuevo Diario,
denounced Jews. Jewish houses of worship were called "Synagogues
of Satan." The Sandinistas have converted Managua's synagogue
into an elite social club for the children of high-ranking San-
dinista officials.
The Sandinistas are also attacking the Protestant minority.
Through physical attacks on Protestant villages, harassment of
church leaders and the imposition of communist ideology on these
communities, the Sandinistas are rapidly achieving a society void
of religious diversity.
After coming to power, the Sandinistas immediately began a
policy of "reeducation" in the Atlantic Coast, the area inhabited
by the Moravian Protestants. The Sandinistas replaced church
leaders with Nicaraguan and Cuban Marxists to indoctrinate the
populace. The result was the violent rejection of the alien
ideology and of its proponents. The Sandinistas then censored
the press and cut off charitable funds to the Atlantic coast com-
munities. After isolating the Moravians, the Sandinistas executed
many of them and destroyed their churches.
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In light of the Sandinistas' increasingly repressive and
numerous human rights violations, the Reagan Administration must
bring the plight of the Nicaraguan people to the attention of the
international community.
Pressure applied by the Organization of American States
against Somoza played a major role in his government's downfall.
Sandinista human rights guarantees to its citizens are based on
the Charters of the Organization of American States and the United
Nations. The OAS should review the charges pressed by Nicaragua's
own independent human rights Commission and by international
organizations.
Hearings should be scheduled in the U.S. Congress to study
human rights violations in Nicaragua. Special attention should
focus on the persecution of religious and ethnic minorities by
the Sandinistas.
International and U.S. organizations should call upon the
Sandinista government to:
Recognize the rights of Nicaraguan Jewish citizens and return
their property and material goods, including their synagogue
in Managua.
Permit the Miskito Indians and other indigenous groups to
return to their homes on the Atlantic Coast and allow them
to continue their traditional lifestyle, compensate them for
lost crops, property and personal effects taken by the San-
dinistas. Security officers responsible for the murders and
abuses against them should be brought to trial and sentenced.
The Reagan Administration, meanwhile, should encourage Western
nations to pressure the Sandinista regime to stop violating the
human rights of the Nicaraguan people. The West should not consider
assisting the Sandinista government until it allows international
organizations to investigate charges of human rights violations.
The White House should also encourage the U.S. labor movement and
those in Japan and Europe to pressure the Sandinistas to recognize
the right of Nicaraguan workers to organize freely.
If the U.S. and the West truly are concerned about human rights,
they no longer will be silent about the lengthening record of
violations against the Nicaraguan people.
Richard Araujo
Policy Analyst*
*The author wishes to acknowledge the valuable assistance of Heritage
Foundation Research Assistant Jay S. Marks in the preparation of this study.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN NICARAGUA
International Covenant o
Ci
il
n
v
and Political Rights, United Nations, Initial
re
orts
f St
t
p
o
a
es parties due in 1979, Addendum: Nicaragua Distr
GENERAL
.
CCPR/C/14/Add.3, March 8, 1983.
Commision Permanente de Derechos Humanos (CPDH), Cuarto Informe Oficial
-
Julio
79- Dic. 80 De Montoya 2 C. Al Lago, Apartado 563 - Managua, Nicaragua
Spanish).
(in
Commision Permanente de Derechos Humanos (CPDH), Informe Mensual- (in Spanish).
The International League of Human Rights, Nicaragua's Human Rights Record -
Working Paper. Comments, Analysis and Background Information on the Report
of the Government of Nicaragua to the Human Rights Committee, March 1983.
John J. Tierney, Jr., Somozas and Sandinistas, The U.S. and Nicaragua in the
Twentieth Century. Washington, D.C.: Council for Inter-American Security, 1983.
Max Singer, Nicaragua--The Stolen Revolution. Washington, D.C.: United States
Information Agency, 1983.
Report of the Amnesty International Missions to the Republic of Nicaragua,
August 1979, January 1980 and August 1980. Published November 1981.
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