By: Intertextual Writing
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On May 16, 1990, a group of people with Vilma Núñez de Escorcia, a criminal law specialist, and human rights defender, founded the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH). The proposed objective has always been “to defend the right of Nicaraguans” says a statement from the organization.
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Since the CENIDH began, “it has fought against four different governments” until April 2018, “we were there with more strength and determination in the face of barbarism,” reads the statement.
In 2018, the organization of lawyers and defenders, the government of Daniel Ortega and Murillo tried to intimidate it by canceling its legal status, along with other organizations, because since the sociopolitical crisis in 2018 it has not left the people. During demonstrations in 2018, he accompanied citizens who demanded justice for the more than 350 murdered, freedom for political prisoners, peace, and democracy.
“When we go out to the streets, when we listen to the testimonies and the cries of the first victims, we find ourselves with the most perverse repression in our recent history, that of the Ortega Murillo. In the midst of attacks on unarmed civil society, in the midst of persecution, we accompany and defend Nicaragua, we bring the truth to the world about the dictatorship’s crimes.” reports the CENIDH.
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The intention was to silence the work of the human rights organization, but they could not. “The dictatorship decided to silence us, canceled our legal status, usurped our facilities, stole our goods and documentary collection; but it did not destroy our commitment to Nicaragua and human rights And here we continue…”
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Vilma Núñez, president of the CENIDH, has repeatedly expressed that the occupation of its facilities brought with it a more brutal blow, the exile of several people from the team “to save their lives or their freedom” among them Gonzalo Carrión, Wendy Flores lawyers and human rights defenders among other young lawyers, who while in Costa Rica formed, thanks to the CENIDH school, the Nicaraguan Never Again Human Rights Collective.
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Thirty-two years after the CENIDH was formed, now without legal status, an organization of the few left in Nicaragua that defends human beings stands firm in its convictions and sends a clear message: “Despite the constant threat to silence us, discredit us, make ourselves invisible, corner ourselves and fear, we have decided to continue the fight, and aware of the risks and limitations we will continue to be consistent until we defeat impunity, convinced that RIGHT THAT DOES NOT DEFEND IS RIGHT THAT IS LOST!
