Nicaragua ratifies life imprisonment law for 'hate crimes'

Archive image of the Congress meeting in Managua on October 15, 2020. (Credit: AFP via Getty Images)

(CNN Spanish) -

The ruling majority of the Nicaraguan National Assembly ratified this Monday a law that reforms the constitution and establishes life imprisonment for those who commit "hate crimes."

The initiative was approved with the favorable vote of 70 deputies, 13 against and 5 abstentions.

The law had been approved in a first legislature last November 10 and was ratified this Monday.

However, opposition deputies assure that this may generate a subjective interpretation of the law to punish opponents of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).

The law amending article 37 of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Nicaragua establishes the following: «Exceptionally, the sentence of life imprisonment will be imposed, reviewable for the person convicted of serious crimes, when there are hateful, cruel, degrading, humiliating circumstances. and inhumane that, due to their impact, cause shock, rejection, indignation, and disgust in the national community.

The law of the matter will determine and regulate its application.

This amendment to the constitutional article was read by deputy Wilfredo Navarro, secretary of the parliamentary board of directors, after its ratification.

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The initiative had been presented on October 22 by 69 deputies from the Sandinista caucus.

The arguments for and against life imprisonment for 'hate crimes'

Sandinista deputy María Auxiliadora Martínez, who coordinated the ruling commission, said this Monday that the reform is taking place in the face of what she described as a popular clamor for the incorporation of an exceptional penalty for those responsible for committing atrocious crimes.

Martínez assures that the legislation does not contradict the constitution or the international legal instruments signed by Nicaragua.

In contrast, Congressman Jimmy Blandón Rubio, from the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC), voted against the approval.

"We are opposed because the text is indeterminate.

What is a hate crime is not defined.

This creates legal insecurity, especially for those of us who oppose the government, ”says Blandón.

The approval of this law comes a week after the President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, reiterated during an act on January 11 in the capital Managua that so-called "hate crimes" should be punished with life imprisonment.

"Hate crimes, those brutal crimes where a person is grabbed, tortured, stripped, beaten, made to run and then put on fuel and set on fire ... That cannot be repeated in this country, these are hate crimes .

In a European country or in the United States, the full weight of the law falls on them, ”justified Ortega.

The ratification of the law took place during a special parliamentary session held this Monday in Ciudad Darío, in the north of Managua.

The session was held in commemoration of the 154th anniversary of the birth of the poet Rubén Darío.