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The Ortega-Murillo dictatorship in Nicaragua ordered the families of political prisoners Mauricio Alonso and Carlos Cárdenas, who died in state custody, to bury them quickly, in what human rights defenders describe as a tactic to cover up its crimes and ensure impunity. They say this tactic occurs in the context of a “heightened state of terror” in Nicaragua.
Although the regime has not acknowledged that Alonso and Cárdenas were under its custody at the time of their deaths, as it did with other deceased political prisoners, the families of the deceased report that both were detained by police officers. From that point, they received no information about their whereabouts until the Institute of Legal Medicine (IML) delivered their bodies.
Human rights defender Gonzalo Carrión, from the collective Nicaragua Nunca Más, explains that by ordering expedited burials, the regime ensured that “no one had access to the bodies” of political prisoners Alonso and Cárdenas. This prevented more people from questioning the circumstances of their deaths, and blocked any approach to the truth of what happened.
“The way they were buried immediately, so quickly, has the purpose of burying the truth,” Carrión warns. In this way, “they guarantee total secrecy, so that no one has access to those bodies. No one knows what condition they were in, or the circumstances and manner in which their lives were taken,” he emphasizes.
With this order, Carrión adds, the regime also deprived the families not only of the possibility of an independent investigation but also of their right to say a final goodbye. “The family was stripped even of that special, intimate moment,” he laments.
The cruelty in these cases, the human rights defender explains, extends from arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance—where torture is presumed—to the denial of the funeral ritual, an act he describes as “inhuman.”
IML covers up the facts
In covering up the deaths of Alonso and Cárdenas, the Institute of Legal Medicine (IML) played a central role, the human rights defender warns. He questions the institution, which instead of fulfilling its role of clarifying the causes of death, ensured that the bodies were buried quickly and under the custody of the National Police.
“The Institute of Legal Medicine participates in making the so-called fateful call and makes sure, together with the police, that the burial happens directly,” Carrión emphasizes.
The human rights defender adds that this is not the first time the IML has covered up the crimes of the dictatorship. He recalls that in 2018, when protests in Nicaragua were at their peak, the institution forced families of victims to sign a document relinquishing any independent investigation in exchange for the delivery of their relatives’ bodies.
Lawyer and human rights professor Uriel Pineda reinforces this perspective from a legal standpoint. “An expedited burial that obstructs any investigation into the causes of death is outrageous and contrary to the State’s obligations to clarify the circumstances,” he explains.
Pineda emphasizes that, according to international standards such as the Minnesota Protocol, any death in state custody must be investigated under a “presumption of unlawful death,” since the State has a duty to protect people deprived of their liberty, who depend entirely on it for food, health, and safety.
State responsibility and guaranteed impunity
Pineda outlines three levels of responsibility the State could bear in the deaths of Alonso and Cárdenas, even if “natural death” were argued:
- A first level, which could be an external factor unrelated to the deprivation of liberty.
- An intermediate level, which implies objective responsibility of the State if it knew of a prisoner’s medical condition and did not provide the necessary treatment to prevent the deterioration of their health and eventual death.
- A third level, if there was deliberate action, such as the intentional denial of medication or medical care, or if the bodies show signs of violence, which would constitute intentional homicide or murder.
“Until these elements are ruled out and clarified—the absence of signs of violence, confirming that the State did not fail in its obligation to provide medical care to these people deprived of liberty—there we would have objective State responsibility in the deaths of these individuals,” Pineda emphasizes.
A message of terror to society
Beyond covering up state responsibility, Carrión believes the express burials are meant to prevent any show of solidarity with the family or public repudiation of the regime. “The dictatorship fears even its own shadow,” he remarks. An open funeral could gather dozens of people, “amplifying feelings of rejection and turning mourning into protest,” he adds.
Carrión also notes that this strategy is part of a “heightened state of terror” in Nicaragua, sending the message that dissent is punished with enforced disappearance, death, and even denial of a funeral. “The message that remains amid all this suffering is terror used to silence,” he adds.
Pineda, on the other hand, sees it less as a new form of violence and more as “an inherent consequence of the dismantling of democratic institutions in the country.” He adds that “in another context, incidents of this nature would trigger an independent investigation.” But at this moment, he warns, “we simply do not have that option.”
