Caribbean & Central America - March 2017 (ISSN 1741-4458)

An incident last month in which two people – including a two-year-old child – were killed in an armed clash with police (PNN) officers has reignited concerns about the PNN, previously one of the country’s most respected institutions but now considered under the thumb of President Daniel Ortega. The incident attracted particular attention given other reports of increased police repression following President Ortega’s controversial re-election in the November 2016 general elections, in a process questioned by the local and international community alike amid wider democracy-related concerns [RC-16-11].

Vilma Rosa González, the PNN’s head of public relations, announced the deaths in a press conference on 6 February, following the incident which took place the previous day in La Dalia municipality, Matagalpa department. González said that an alleged local gang leader, Cairo Blandón Lemus, was killed along with his daughter in the cross-fire after some 15 PNN officials searched his house.

These claims however have been challenged by local human rights groups like the NGO Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos (CENIDH). In a 7 February statement, the CENIDH announced that it had received a complaint from both Blandón’s mother and his wife (and mother of the child) who denied that Blandón was a criminal and that he had a gun. The CENIDH report cites the two women as saying that during the operation, the PNN failed to present warrants either for his arrest or to search the premises. They also denied that the deaths were the result of an exchange of fire as Blandón did not have a gun.

The incident led human rights defenders like CENIDH director Gonzalo Carrión to make comparisons with the so-called Las Jagüitas case which took place in July 2015 in Las Jagüitas, an area in south-eastern Managua, and attracted widespread outrage. In that incident, a young woman and two children were killed by the PNN in a botched counter-narcotics operation when the officials reportedly mistook the family’s vehicle for that of suspected criminals [RC-15-08].

Other concerns about repression

The PNN also attracted concerns that it was being deployed by the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) government for repressive ends over its response to protests which took place in late 2016 against the controversial ‘Gran Canal’ project linking the country’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts – Nicaragua’s biggest ever infrastructure project.

With the protests, which took place in late November/early December, reportedly attracting a turnout of thousands – both in Managua and the rest of the country – the Frente Amplio por la Democracia (FAD) opposition coalition issued a statement at the time accusing the Ortega government of deploying a “gigantic operation” of PNN and army officers, leaving the country in a “virtual state of siege”.

At the time, a leading national daily, La Prensa, reported that the PNN had set up 54 roadblocks across the country, in 13 of the 15 departments, as part of efforts to stop demonstrations. Clashes between PNN officers and protesters on 30 November left 11 people injured, while plans to stage protests in Managua the same day were cancelled after incidents with riot police the previous day in Nueva Guinea municipality in the South Atlantic autonomous region (Raas), and El Tule town in Río San Juan department.

• DOEP deployment

On 4 February, a special police unit (DOEP) was deployed in the capital, Managua. This was in response to a shootout which took place on 26 January which left one criminal and two police officers dead. While the Ortega government maintained that the DOEP deployment was necessary to restore order, Omar Lola, a local councilor for the opposition Partido Liberal Independiente (PLI), told the local press the same day that it was intended to send a message of “intimidation”. The violence made headlines given that Nicaragua has one of the lowest homicide rates in the region at seven per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016.