US calls for Nicaragua to free imprisoned Indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera after hospital photos

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — The U.S. called for the release of imprisoned Nicaraguan Indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera on Friday after the government published photos of him in the hospital in critical condition.

Rivera, a leader of the Miskito people who have been at odds with the ruling Sandinista government for decades, has been imprisoned since Sept. 29, 2023 as part of a years-long crackdown on dissent. His family has said he is imprisoned for political reasons and that the government hasn’t presented formal charges.

At least a handful of prisoners have died in the Nicaraguan government’s custody in recent years as the government has imprisoned hundreds of journalists, activists and political opposition.

The Nicaraguan government said in January that it would release some prisoners, following pressure on its government in the wake of the U.S. military operation to capture Venezuela’s then-President Nicolás Maduro. But there has been little transparency from the government following the announcement.

“This repression, violence and inhumanity is abhorrent,” the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs posted on social platform X Friday. “We reiterate our call for his and all political prisoners’ unconditional release NOW.”

On Wednesday, the government of co-Presidents Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo published a report on Rivera's health, saying that he is in a “delicate” state connected to a mechanical ventilator with multiple organ failure. Photos showed an emaciated Rivera hooked up to multiple tubes in a hospital bed.

A Thursday statement from a coalition of Nicaraguan Indigenous groups criticized the government for imprisoning Rivera arbitrarily and “distorting the narrative” by claiming he was already in poor health when taken into custody.

“We know that who is responsible for this very grave situation that he is in, for the violations of human rights, is the Sandinista Ortega-Murillo regime,” they said in the statement sent to The Associated Press.

At least 47 people are currently imprisoned in Nicaragua for political reasons, according to a group tracking these cases known as the Mechanism for Recognition of Political Prisoners. Hundreds have imprisoned following a 2018 uprising, which led to a bloody government crackdown that killed hundreds.

What started as a protest against a reform to the social security system expanded to call for the resignation of Ortega, who has ruled the country for nearly two decades after changing the constitution to allow his repeated reelection. The repression intensified before 2021 presidential elections, in which all competitive candidates were imprisoned before Ortega declared victory. The U.S. does not recognize Ortega’s presidency.

More than 200 political prisoners were released and sent to the U.S. in 2023, and they described being held in isolation and subjected to physical and psychological torture. Many developed chronic health problems because of the conditions there and now live in a precarious immigration limbo under the Trump administration. Another 135 political prisoners were released and sent to Guatemala in 2024.

The Miskito population has been a particularly prickly thorn in the side of the Ortega regime, according to Manuel Prado, international representative for the Yatama Indigenous Party, which Rivera represented in Congress.

Rivera played a key role in the resistance to the Ortega’s Sandinista government in the late 1970s and 1980s, participating in the armed U.S.-back Contra movement and helping to establish the area on the northern coast as an autonomous region.

Rich in resources, including gold and silver, the Miskito region is important for the Ortega-Murillo administration’s goal of attracting international investment, particularly from China.

Prado called for Rivera’s release and expressed his concern for his current physical state.

“We do feel like Ortega will allow him to die,” Prado said.