by IWU-FI
30 June 2022
International Commission of leftist MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT arrives in Costa Rica.
From 6 to 8 July, a caravan will start in Costa Rica towards Peñas Blancas, on the border with Nicaragua, to demand the freedom of political prisoners there. With a commission of human rights defenders, leaders and Parliamentarians members of the International Commission for the life and freedom of political prisoners in Nicaragua. The International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI) will take part in this important event, as it is part of this campaign that has been promoting the release of Dora Maria Tellez, Yader Parajon and all political prisoners.
The IWU-FI will join in this caravan, together with other organisations. With a commission headed by the elected legislator, Pablo Almeida of Izquierda Socialista (Socialist Left)/FIT Unidad (Left Front-Unity), and Virgilio “Villo” Arauz, a leader of Propuesta Socialista (Socialist Proposal), the Panamanian section of the IWU-FI. They are part of the International Commission of left-wing parliamentarians, representatives of human rights organisations, trade unions and social movements formed as a united group to verify in situ the conditions of health and imprisonment of political prisoners in Nicaragua.
Below we reproduce the declaration of the International Commission for the Life and Freedom of Political Prisoners in Nicaragua.
Declaration
We are not indifferent. Nicaragua needs us.
We have always carried Nicaragua and the struggles of its rebellious people in our consciences and hearts. Because its powerful revolution in 1979 against the sinister dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza was a Latin American and world reference point, and because today the reality that its people have to suffer is not indifferent to us. In April 2018, facing the measures implemented by Ortega-Murillo at the behest of the IMF, and the repression of the protests, an enormous process of popular mobilisation erupted, with the youth playing a central role. It was not a bolt from the blue: the economic-social austerity plan and authoritarianism had been going on for years. Despite the falsely anti-imperialist and left-wing rhetoric, the current FSLN government has been applying austerity measures since its return to power. As a result, Nicaragua is today a capitalist country in every sense of the word, with the highest poverty rates on the continent. The April Rebellion was a turning point in the face of this general situation. There are 180 political prisoners, among them historical leaders of the anti-somocista struggle, activists of the student movement, and feminist and peasant leaders. There are people killed by the repression, the disappeared, the thousands of exiles and the lack of essential democratic freedoms in that country. Thence, we decided to set up an International Commission of parliamentarians, representatives of human rights organisations, trade unions, social movements, intellectuals and the cultural field to verify in situ the health condition and imprisonment situation of political prisoners in Nicaragua. We consider the innumerable complaints made by relatives and groups in that country. Our banner is the unconditional release of all of them and the annulment of their sentences.This Commission will travel to Costa Rica on 6 July and from there to the border post of Peñas Blancas. We call for the initiative to strengthen, adding support to the proposal from all over the world.
International Commission for the life and freedom of political prisoners in Nicaragua.
30 May 2022.
Signatures
Social and Human Rights organisations and referents
*Elia Espen (Madres de Plaza de Mayo – Línea Fundadora) – Argentina
*Articulación de Movimientos Sociales (Articulation of Social Movements) – Nicaragua
*Grupo de Reflexión de Excarcelados Políticos (Reflection Group of Political Ex-prisoners) – Nicaragua
*Congress of Unity of the Free Nicaraguans – Nicaragua
*CORREPI (Coordinadora contra la Represión Policial e Institucional) – Argentina
*CADHU (Centro de Abogados por los Derechos Humanos) – Argentina
*CEPRODH (Centro de Profesionales por los Derechos Humanos – Centre of Professionals for Human Rights) – Argentina
*EMCF (Encuentro Militante Cachito Fukman) – Argentina
*Herman@s de Desaparecidos por la Verdad y la Justicia (Sisters of the Disappeared for Truth and Justice) – Argentina
*Neighbours’ Commission for Justice for Campomar – Argentina
Political, trade union and social organisations
*Alternativa Anticapitalista (LIS) – Nicaragua
*Revolutionary Workers’ Party (Partido Revolucionario de las y los Trabajadores) – Costa Rica
*Revolutionary Socialist Organisation – Costa Rica
*MST – FIT Unity (LIS) – Argentina
*PTS – FIT Unity – Argentina
*Socialist Left – FIT Unity (IWU-FI) -Argentina
Movimento Esquerda Socialista – PSOL – Brazil
Socialism and Freedom Party (PSL-IWU-FI) of Venezuela
Socialist Proposals of Panama. IWU-FI
Movimiento Socialista de los Trabajadores (MST-IWU-FI) of Dominican Republic.
Corriente Socialista de los Trabajadores (CST/PSOL) IWU-FI, Brazil.
Parliamentarians, leaders and personalities
*Myriam Bregman, national MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT – PTS in the FITU – Argentina
*Juan Carlos Giordano, National MP-elect, IS in the LF-U – Argentina
*Alejandro Bodart, MP CABA (mc) of the MST in the LF-U, leader of the LIS
*Nicolas del Caño, national MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT – PTS in the LF-U – Argentina
*Cele Fierro, national referent of the MST in the LF-U – Argentina
*Monica Schlottauer, elected national MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, IS in the Left Front-U – Argentina
*Alejandro Vilca, national MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT – PTS in the LF-U – Argentina
*Luciana Echevarría, MP from Córdoba, MST in the LF-U – Argentina
*Noelia Agüero, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT Córdoba province, IS-FIT-Unity – Argentina
*Alejandrina Barry, MP CABA, PTS in the IUF – Argentina
*Vilma Ripoll, elected national MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT MST in the Left Front-Unity – Argentina
*Pablo Almeida, elected legislator CABA, IS in the Left Front-U- Argentina
Simón Rodríguez Porras, (PSL of Venezuela)
Priscilla Vezquez (Panama)
Virgilio Aráuz (Panama)
Carlos Guevara (Panama)
Michelet Jerome, Mouvement Integre Goman (MIG) (Haiti)
Jean-Marie Janvier, Organisation des Revoltes Haitiens (ORHA) (Haiti)
Rosny Jean, Regard Reveil des Grand’Anselais pour le Develeppement (Haiti)
Salomon Gustave, Mouvement Socialiste des Travailleurs Haitiens (MSTH-ROZO) (Haiti)
