Strasbourg, 12 February 2025
At the plenary session in Strasbourg, the author of the resolution on the repression in Nicaragua, Željana Zovko, made a speech on the repression by the Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua, targeting human rights defenders, political opponents and religious communities in particular.
Zovko negotiated the resolution on Nicaragua that will be put to a vote on Thursday.
In her speech, Zovko emphasized that the Ortega-Murillo regime systematically persecutes human rights defenders, civil society organizations and members of the Catholic Church. This regime also confiscates their assets.
She added that the regime not only expelled them from the country but also stripped them of their nationality and deprived them of their political rights.
Zovko highlighted that with this resolution on Nicaragua, the European Parliament strongly condemns the Nicaraguan regime that repeatedly violates human rights against civil society, students and the Catholic Church. She underlined that 245 members of the clergy have been either arrested or expelled and that recently the regime has ordered Poor Clare nuns to leave the country.
As negotiator of the resolution on Nicaragua, Zovko also insisted that she was satisfied that her co-negotiators understood that the democratic clause of the Association Agreement must be triggered.
She called on the European Union to introduce the highest possible sanctions to those who are responsible for this persecution, and called on the European Parliament to break all ties with bodies linked to the Nicaraguan regime by breaking all communication channels including parliamentary dialogue.
Zovko stated that, after this resolution, no one will be able to say they were not aware of the severity of the regime.
Zovko insisted that this resolution must be the last one and that the External Action Service and the Council must take severe action to punish perpetuators of this totalitarian oppression in Latin America.
“Human rights defenders, civil society and the Catholic Church persecuted by the regime in Nicaragua should be our next Sakharov Prize, not only candidates but winners, since their courageous fight for freedom needs our support and since they must not feel abandoned”, Zovko concluded.