Nicaragua’s civil liberties rating declined from 3 to 4 due to President Daniel Ortega’s continued use of violent intimidation and politicized courts to overcome obstacles to his plans for reelection.

 

Nicaragua is an electoral democracy. The constitution provides for a directly elected president and a 92-member, unicameral National Assembly. Two seats in the legislature are reserved for the previous president and the runner-up in the last presidential election. Both presidential and legislative elections are held every five years. The governing FSLN party and its ally, the PLC, currently dominate state institutions and together hold a two-thirds majority in the legislature.

The 2006 presidential and legislative elections were regarded as free and fair by the CSE and the international community. However, independent observers reported fraud in at least 40 municipalities during the November 2008 local elections, which raised concerns about the impartiality of the CSE in the face of FSLN influence.

The political and civic climate is affected by corruption, political pacts, violence, and drug-related crime. Corruption cases against opposition figures often raise questions about political motivation. The 2007 Law on Access to Public Information requires public entities and private companies doing business with the state to disclose certain information. However, it preserved the government’s right to protect information related to state security, and in 2009 government-run enterprises failed to publish financial information in accordance with the law.

The administration of President Daniel Ortega has created a network of private businesses under the auspices of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), a regional economic association through which the Venezuelan government provides Nicaragua with 10 million barrels of oil annually. Nicaragua pays half the cost up front and the rest over a 25-year period, with a 2 percent interest rate. The funds generated from the resale of Venezuelan oil are dedicated to social projects but administered directly by President Daniel Ortega’s office, outside of the national budget. This has raised concerns that the money could be allocated in a corrupt or politicized manner. In June 2009, the Central Bank was required by the International Monetary Fund to reveal the amount of funding received from Venezuela on its website; Nicaragua reportedly received $457 million in 2008, up from $185 million in 2007. However, the Central Bank did not explain how the money was used. In February 2009, the director of the social program Zero Hunger, Gustavo Moreno, resigned amid charges of corrupt contracting and acquisition procedures. Nicaragua was ranked 130 out of 180 countries surveyed in Transparency International’s 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index.

The constitution calls for a free press but allows some censorship. Radio remains the main source of information. Before leaving office in 1990, the Sandinistas privatized some radio stations and handed them to party loyalists. There are six television networks based in the capital, including a state-owned network, and many favor particular political factions. Three national newspapers cover the news from a variety of political viewpoints. Investigative journalism plays a major role in exposing corruption and official misconduct. The opposition has accused the office of the Communications and Citizenry Council, which oversees the government’s press relations and is directed by First Lady Rosario Murillo, of limiting access to information and censoring the opposition. Access to the internet is unrestricted.

The press has faced increased political and judicial harassment since 2007, as the Ortega administration engages in systematic efforts to obstruct and discredit critics in the media. Journalists have received death threats, and some have been killed in recent years, with a number of attacks attributed to FSLN sympathizers. Amnesty International reported that at least 20 journalists and 5 independent radio stations were attacked following the 2008 municipal elections. Judges aligned with the FSLN have ordered restrictions on coverage of particular cases. In February 2009, citing a lack of evidence, the Interior Ministry dropped an embezzlement and money-laundering investigation it had launched in 2008 against 17 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), with a focus on two groups headed by journalists. A poll released in April revealed that self-censorship had increased by 23 percentage points between February 2007 and February 2009; the share of respondents reporting that they did not feel safe discussing politics in public rose from 39 percent in 2007 to 68 percent in 2009.

Freedom of religion is respected, and academic freedom is generally honored.

Freedoms of assembly and association are recognized by law, but their observance in practice has come under mounting pressure. While public demonstrations are generally allowed, FSLN supporters used violence against antigovernment protesters in 2008. In February 2009, demonstrators calling for a recount of the November 2008 municipal elections were similarly attacked by FSLN supporters in the cities of Leon, Jinotega, and Chinandega. Opposition members accused the police of partisan behavior and failing to protect demonstrators.

Although NGOs are active and operate freely, they have faced harassment in recent years, and the emergence of the CPCs has weakened their influence. In 2009 the government introduced an “international cooperation manual” that would have regulated NGO activities and funding and placed restrictions on their cooperation with international organizations. Implementation of the manual was suspended in July following widespread criticism by civil society organizations.

The FSLN controls many of the country’s labor unions, and the legal rights of non-FSLN unions are not fully guaranteed. There are reports of employees being dismissed for union activities. Although the law recognizes the right to strike, unions must clear a number of hurdles first, and the requisite approval from the Ministry of Labor is almost never granted. Employers sometimes form their own unions to avoid recognizing legitimate organizations. Citizens have no effective recourse when labor laws are violated by those in power. Child labor and other labor abuses in export-processing zones continue to be problems, though child labor occurs most often in the agricultural sector.

The judiciary remains dominated by FSLN and PLC appointees, and the Supreme Court is a largely politicized body controlled by Sandinista judges. The court system also suffers from corruption, long delays, a large backlog of cases, and a severe shortage of public defenders. Access to justice is especially deficient in rural areas and on the Caribbean coast.

Despite long-term improvements in the conduct of security forces, abuses of human rights still occur, and law enforcement officials allowed progovernment groups to assault protesters with impunity following the 2008 municipal elections. Forced confessions remain a problem, as do arbitrary arrests, and insufficient funding has affected police performance and staffing levels. Conditions in the similarly underfunded prisons are poor. Nicaragua is an important transshipment point for South American drugs, but the police have been active in combating trafficking and organized crime.

The constitution and laws nominally recognize the rights of indigenous communities, but those rights have not been respected in practice. Approximately 5 percent of the population is indigenous and lives mostly in the Northern Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) and Southern Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS). The government has taken no known steps to comply with a 2005 ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which ordered it to pay damages to indigenous groups after the electoral commission prevented the majority-indigenous Yatama party from competing in 2000 municipal elections. Yatama won 16 percent of the vote in 2006 regional elections. In 2008, the CSE postponed municipal elections in seven municipalities of the RAAN; critics said the aim was to suppress anti-FSLN sentiment in the area following Hurricane Felix, which struck in September 2007. In April 2009, the Miskito Council of Elders announced the creation of a separatist movement demanding independence from Nicaragua; separatists have cited government neglect and grievances related to the exploitation of natural resources. Over a thousand separatist supporters held a demonstration in Bilwi, the RAAN capital, in May.

Violence against women and children, including sexual and domestic abuse, remains a widespread and underreported problem. In September 2009, the public defender’s office increased free legal services for victims of domestic violence in 12 municipalities. Abortion is illegal and punishable by imprisonment, even when performed to save the mother’s life or in cases of rape or incest. Scores of deaths stemming from the ban have been reported in recent years. The Autonomous Women’s Movement, which has vocally opposed the abortion ban, was among the NGOs that faced criminal investigations in 2008 only to be cleared of wrongdoing in February 2009.

Nicaragua is a source for the trafficking of women and children for prostitution. A penal code reform prohibiting trafficking in persons took effect in July 2008, but the country was placed on the Tier 2 Watch List of the U.S. State Department’s 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report due to its lack of progress in raising awareness of the problem, improving treatment of victims, and compiling reliable trafficking statistics.