UN experts say Nicaragua's police, prisons, interior ministry and courts took part in coordinated forced disappearances and eight deaths in custody; 29 people remain missing
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On 22 September 2026 the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua told the Human Rights Council that it has reasonable grounds to believe the National Police, the penitentiary system, the Interior Ministry and the judiciary took part in systematic, coordinated abuses under centralised control. It documented at least 161 enforced disappearances since 2018, with 29 people still missing, and eight deaths in state custody of people detained on political grounds, including Brooklyn Rivera, whose death was announced on 31 May 2026. The experts said the state withheld full medical records and blocked an independent autopsy, and called for disclosure of the missing people's whereabouts and independent investigation of the deaths.
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● confirmed by a primary document · ○ reported
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- www.ohchr.orgDocument
the Government was responsible for the deaths in State custody of eight people detained on political grounds
1 source
- La República
29 people remain disappeared; 161 cases since 2018
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