Brooklyn Rivera, an Indigenous leader, politician and activist, has died at age 73 after years in Nicaraguan state custody, prompting outcry from rights advocates.
On Sunday, Nicaragua’s government attributed his cause of death to a bacterial infection that took hold after a bout of COVID-19.
But critics have expressed scepticism and outrage, as the announcement came after growing pressure to ascertain his welfare.
“If he is dead, it cannot be said that the cause was illness,” said Reed Brody, a member of the United Nations Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua.
In a statement before Rivera’s death was confirmed, Brody blamed the government for any harm to the Indigenous leader.
“The cause would be that he was in government custody in conditions of enforced disappearance for over two years, denied independent medical oversight. There is no other way to read this,” Brody wrote.
Since September 2023, Rivera has been held in state detention, without contact with the outside world. Until recently, there had been no confirmation of his imprisonment, and his family was barred from seeing him.
But on Wednesday, the Ministry of the Interior confirmed Rivera’s detention and published photos of the Indigenous leader intubated in a hospital.
It described Rivera’s condition at the time as “delicate”. He had reportedly suffered from “multiple organ failure, a cirrhotic liver and an active lung infection”, and he was being treated with “mechanical ventilation through a tracheotomy and intravenous feeding”.
The photographs spurred a new wave of condemnation and calls for his freedom.
The United States “demanded his unconditional release” in a statement posted to social media. It also blamed Nicaragua’s leaders for “their singular role in his cruel treatment”.
“This repression, violence, and inhumanity is abhorrent; we reiterate our call for his and all political prisoners’ unconditional release NOW,” the US State Department wrote.
Nicaragua’s government – led by spouses Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, who serve as co-presidents – has long been criticised for its hardline rule and record of human rights abuses.
Under Ortega and Murillo, dissidents have faced arrest, imprisonment, torture, exile and the revocation of their citizenship.
Rivera was among the leaders who spoke out against Ortega’s left-wing Sandinista government.
