human rights
The U.N. criticized Nicaragua for increasing repression. Nicaragua responded by expelling the organization.
Two days after a United Nations report labeled the country as repressive, Nicaragua is expelling a U.N. human rights team from the country.
Guillermo Fernandez Maldonado, the U.N.'s lead human rights official for Nicaragua, said Friday that his team will leave the country, The Associated Press reports. The U.N. published a report Wednesday demanding urgent action be taken to address Nicaragua's human rights crisis; more than 300 people have been killed in the country since mid-April, AP reports, after cuts to social security triggered protests. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega reversed the cuts, but demonstrators still called for him to step down.
Ortega refuted the claims in the U.N.'s report, labeling the organization as "an instrument of the policies of terror, lies, and infamy." He has refused to step down or hold early elections, despite calls for both, Al Jazeera reports.
"Repression and retaliation against demonstrators continue in Nicaragua as the world looks away," said Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights. "The violence and impunity of these past four months have exposed the fragility of the country’s institutions and the rule of law, and created a climate of fear and mistrust." Read more about the crisis at The Associated Press.