{"id":253008,"date":"2026-06-03T00:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T00:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/253008\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T00:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T00:35:09","slug":"un-calls-on-nicaragua-to-investigate-indigenous-leader-brooklyn-riveras-death-in-custody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/253008\/","title":{"rendered":"UN calls on Nicaragua to investigate Indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera\u2019s death in custody"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEXICO CITY — The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday called on the Nicaraguan government to conduct an impartial investigation into the death of renowned imprisoned Indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera,<\/a> adding to international condemnation of the case.<\/p>\n

The death of the 73-year-old Miskito leader was announced Sunday by the Nicaraguan government, which reported that Rivera died from a bacterial infection after his health deteriorated<\/a> following a bout with COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Rivera, whose opposition to the Sandinista government dates back to the 1970s, was imprisoned on Sept. 29, 2023, as part of a crackdown on dissent against the Sandinista government. His family denounced his imprisonment for political reasons and stated that the government had not filed formal charges.<\/p>\n

Last month, the administration of co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo published a report on Rivera\u2019s health,<\/a> indicating that he was on a ventilator and suffering from multiple organ failure.<\/p>\n

The Nicaraguan government said in January that it would release some prisoners,<\/a> following pressure on its government in the wake of the U.S. military operation to capture Venezuela\u2019s then-President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/a> But there has been little transparency from the government following the announcement.<\/p>\n

The UNHCR said Tuesday that Rivera was arbitrarily detained and that his case constituted a \u201cforced disappearance\u201d given that the government did not make known his whereabouts for his more than two years in its custody, according to spokesperson Marta Hurtado.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe specific conditions of his detention over the years, including whether he had access to adequate medical care, and the exact sequence of events that led to his death, remain unclear,\u201d Hurtado said in the statement.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time the UNHCR has criticized Nicaragua for what it considers a \u201ccontinued pattern of serious allegations of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners.\u201d<\/p>\n

In August 2025, the U.N. agency reported three other deaths in custody that were allegedly linked to poor detention conditions and insufficient medical care.<\/p>\n

At least 47 people are currently imprisoned in Nicaragua for political reasons, according to a group that monitors these cases known as the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners. Hundreds were imprisoned following a popular uprising in 2018 that led to a bloody government crackdown that killed hundreds.<\/p>\n

More than 200 political prisoners were released and sent to the U.S.<\/a> in 2023 and described being held in solitary confinement and subjected to torture. Many developed chronic health problems and now live in a precarious immigration limbo under the Trump administration. Another 135 political prisoners were released<\/a> and sent to Guatemala in 2024.<\/p>\n

The UNHCR called on the Nicaraguan government to \u201crelease all arbitrarily detained persons and to ensure that detention centers fully comply with international human rights standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s Latin America coverage at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/latin-america<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEXICO CITY — The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday called on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,8676,417,9959,415,9,24,63,87,4719,19170,1076],"class_list":["post-253008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-coronavirus","tag-general-news","tag-human-rights","tag-indictments","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-prisons","tag-torture","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}