<html><head></head><body><div>María Zúniga in Nicaragua asked me to share the English version of this position and to ask you to please disseminate it. Thank you. Susan Greenblatt</div><div><br></div><div><span><p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:20.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">People’s Health Movement – Latin America</span></b></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">Position on Repression, Murders and Human Rights
Violations by the Government of Nicaragua, Ruled by the Ortega-Murillos, Particularly
on the Arbitrary Deportation of Ana Quirós Víquez</span></b></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></b></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">The People’s Health Movement in Latin America
hereby expresses to the international community its profound concern over the
events that have been occurring in our sister nation of Nicaragua since April
2018, which were triggered by highly unpopular reforms the government tried to
make to the pension system. This was the fuse that lit the popular explosion
against abuses of power by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, the ruling
couple, which so far have left a toll of over 300 dead, thousands of wounded,
hundreds of people arbitrarily detained without access to due process, and tens
of thousands of exiles.</span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">This situation has led many longstanding social
organizations, including the </span><i>Centro de Información y Servicios de Asesoría
en Salud</i><span lang="EN-GB"> (CISAS), a
health NGO, to demand a process of dialogue that would develop a minimum set of
understandings to end the abuses and bloodshed of our comrades who suffer repression, abuse and death daily.</span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">One of these historic voices comes from Ana
Quirós Víquez, who was beaten while participating in a public demonstration on
18 April, resulting in wounds to her head and fractures of her right hand. She
emerged from this undaunted to continue the struggle demanding dialogue and
negotiation. As a consequence, on Tuesday, 27 November, following an arbitrary
decision by the Ortega-Murillo government, she was expelled from Nicaragua,
arguing that she “has two nationalities” (Costa Rican and Nicaraguan), and
unjustifiably banned from entering Nicaragua for the next five years.</span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">Given these events, the People’s Health
Movement in Latin America CONDEMNS:</span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">1.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">The
repression and impunity that has been inflicted by the Ortega-Murillo regime on
our sister nation of Nicaragua since April 2018; and</span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">2.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">The
criminalization of social protest, labelling it as an attempted coup or
external aggression, thus denying the establishment of dialogue and
negotiations to put an end to the bloodshed and human rights violations.</span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoListParagraph"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><b><span lang="EN-GB">IN PARTICULAR, WE
REPUDIATE:</span></b></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">The arbitrary, tyrannical expulsion of our
comrade ANA QUIRÓS VÍQUEZ, in violation of her rights, specifically her
political rights.</span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><b><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></b></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><b><span lang="EN-GB">WE DEMAND THAT THE
ORTEGA-MURILLOS:</span></b></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><b><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></b></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">Immediately reinstate the right of Ana Quirós
Víquez to live freely as a Nicaraguan citizen in her country, which she has
done so much to defend at different points in its history.</span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><b><span lang="EN-GB">WE CALL ON DEMOCRATIC
GOVERNMENTS TO:</span></b></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">Take a political position in defence of rights
and true democracy, and break from the indifference that makes them accomplices
of the regime.</span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><b><span lang="EN-GB">WE ALSO CALL ON SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS AND ORGANIZATIONS TO:</span></b></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">Speak out and join in demanding that ANA QUIRÓS
VÍQUEZ must be given back the full exercise of her rights.</span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">Latin America, November 2018.</span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="ydp635e93ecMsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p></span><br></div><div class="ydp26c739e6yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;"></div></body></html>