Feminist Activists Condemn The Government of Nicaragua

received via e-mail:

Feminist Activists Condemn the Government of Nicaragua
at the Americas Social Forum, Guatemala

As women and feminists present in the Social Forum of the Americas in Guatemala, we energetically condemn the government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua for recent egregious violations against women’s rights including:

•    Physical violence and political persecution of feminists and their organizations
•    Destruction and removal of files and information from the offices of the Research Center for Communication (CINCO) and from the Autonomous Women’s Movement (MAM) of Nicaragua
•    A call to the people of Nicaragua to mobilize and take mob-style actions against feminists
•    The order of search and seizure against a women’s group in Matagalpa called Grupo Venancia

These acts are part of an orchestrated campaign to criminalize feminists for their work to re-instate the right to therapeutic abortion (in cases where the mother’s life is at stake) and as reprisal for the denouncements of the sexual abuse of Zoila America by Daniel Ortega generated by many women’s organizations.

These acts reflect an institutionalized policy of misogyny and represent serious violations of human rights committed by the Nicaraguan state against defenders of the rights of women.

We hold President Daniel Ortega and his government responsible for all of the physical, psychological and economic damage carried out against these women and the organizations that they are a part of.

We are calling on all those people who believe in democracy and who believe that – in the spirit of this Forum – another world is possible, to condemn these criminal actions and actively support Nicaraguan feminists in their struggles for basic human rights and to put a stop to the violence perpetrated by the Nicaraguan state in the form of a witch hunt.