TODAY NICARAGUA – Nicaragua’s president, Daniel Ortega, underestimates ‘new Covid outbreak’, dismissing the accelerated increase of deaths and contagions due to the resurgence of covid-19, which has reached the limit of the capacity of Nicaraguan hospitals.
Instead, he called on the population to go outside with “caution” aware that closing oneself in is like burying one’s head like an ostrich and dying.
“The solution… as has been demonstrated in countries that wanted to force people, even imprisoning those who did not comply with the confinement; that was not the solution. Rather, it caused more deaths, and intra-family problems (…) You have to know how to go out in the street, doing it carefully, you have to know how to go to work, doing it carefully. Every day, even without an epidemic, if you don’t walk carefully, there is death by accident,” said Ortega during the 37th anniversary of the founding of the Special Operations Directorate (DOEP) on Monday.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Ortega government has disregarded the call of international health organizations, which recommend distancing as a measure to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.
During his speech, Daniel Ortega focused on emphasizing the importance of stability and peace.
“Let’s imagine ourselves with this pandemic in a situation like that of April 2018. Peace is decisive and peace is guaranteed by the State with its institutions, such as the Police and the Army, special forces such as the DOEP are decisive to ensure peace and stability,” said the president, accompanied by the high command of the Police, headed by the general director, first commissioner Francisco Diaz, who together with the rest of the DOEP cadres, swore loyalty to the supreme chief of the institution in his speech.
The same institution celebrated by Ortega, has been singled out along with his government for multiple human rights violations in the context of the 2018 protests, and according to the report of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), the Police and Ortega should be investigated for committing crimes against humanity.
Article originally appeared on Today Nicaragua and is republished here with permission.
