2023 RLLR 254

Citation: 2023 RLLR 254
Tribunal: Refugee Protection Division
Date of Decision: November 23, 2023
Panel: Lesley Stalker
Counsel for the Claimant(s): Pedro Pablo Morales
Country: Nicaragua
RPD Number: VC3-03373
Associated RPD Number(s): VC3-03370, VC3-03375, VC3-03377, VC3-03379
ATIP Number: A-2024-01360
ATIP Pages: N/A

DECISION 

[1] MEMBER: This is the decision of the Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board in the claims of XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, younger brother, his brother, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, older brother, his wife, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, female claimant, and their minor children, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. The claimants are a family from Nicaragua and are seeking refugee protection pursuant to section 96 and subsection 97(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. 

[2] At the outset of the hearing, I confirmed the appointment of the younger brother as the designated representative for the minor claimants in today’s hearing. 

[3] And by way of explanation, I am referring to each of you by kind of a family position, younger brother, older brother, and so on, and that is so that we avoid using your name in the decision except at the very beginning. This is for your protection. 

DETERMINATION

[4] I find that each of you meets the definition of a Convention refugee and that you face serious possibility of persecution in your home country due to your political beliefs and your membership in a particular social group, namely your kinship to political dissidents. My reasons follow. 

ALLEGATIONS

[5] You have set out your basic allegations in the Basis of Claim forms of the two (2) brothers, and your allegations may be summarized as follows. You fear that you will be arrested, tortured, imprisoned, or possibly even killed by government authorities in Nicaragua due to your participation in anti-government protests and because of your affiliation with the brothers’ father, who was a known dissident. Many members of your family, including three (3) adult claimants here today, attended anti-government protests in 2018. These protests erupted in response to government changes affecting benefits for older people, but the protests became a platform for general dissatisfaction with the authoritarian style of the Sandinista government. The brothers’ father was particularly active in the protests, often leaving early in the day or attending protests on a frequent basis. 

[6] Unfortunately, on XXXX XXXX, 2018, the father was shot at around 5:00 in the morning as he left home to attend that day’s protest. That evening, as you gathered to mourn your father’s death, more shots were fired at your home. You went into hiding. Older brother went to Costa Rica with his wife and children, who remain there. The other claimants hid at the home of a relative in a rural area of Nicaragua until you were able to raise funds to leave the country. 

Identity

[7] I am satisfied as to your respective identities by the various documents that you have filed. Only the older brother has presented a valid passport. The other claimants have presented a variety of other documents, including birth certificates, cedula, C-E-D-U-L-A, which are national identity cards, and a marriage certificate. Younger brother also presented a photocopy of his passport, the original of which was seized by US authorities when he entered that country. In view of the identity documents that you have presented together with your sworn testimony, I am satisfied that you are who you say you are and that you are citizens of Nicaragua and no other country. 

[8] Nexus

[9] I next consider whether your claims have a nexus or connection to any of the grounds for protection set out in the Refugee Convention. In the case of the adult claimants, I find that your claims have a nexus to the Convention ground of political opinion. I also find that each of the adult claimants has a nexus to the Convention ground of particular social group, namely your kinship or relationship to known dissidents, in particular the father. 

[10] In terms of the minor claimants, I find that they have a nexus to the Convention ground of membership in a particular social group, that being their kinship to the political dissidents who are their parents and aunts and uncles. 

Credibility

[11] The next question is whether I find that you are credible, and I do. When assessing credibility, I start from the presumption that you are telling me the truth and that the information you are giving me is reliable. This presumption could be set aside if I have reasons to doubt the truthfulness or reliability of what you are saying, but I had no reason to doubt your credibility. All three (3) of the adult claimants testified, and I found that you each answered my questions in a direct and thoughtful way. 

[12] Younger brother testified at some length. He explained the reasons that Nicaraguans took to the streets in XXXX 2018. Younger brother said that the father had long been critical of the Nicaraguan government and was particularly active in the protests. Your family lived about XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX from a university which served as an epicentre for the protests. Not only did your father attend many of the marches or protests, he also provided food and water to protests. As time went on and ordinary civilians were killed, your father became increasingly angry and his resolve increased. The three (3) of you, the adult claimants here today, were not as active in the protests as your father was, but you supported the goals of the protesters and you attended a number of protests yourselves. 

[13] Younger brother described what happened the morning of the father’s murder. He had left early to go to the protests. On that particular day, the paramilitary guards arrived earlier than usual and they shot him. Younger brother was with him and he and two (2) others carried the father’s body back into the home. The body was in an unimaginable state. One (1) of the minor claimants started to go into convulsions when he saw his grandfather and he passed out. The brother’s mother also passed out when she saw her husband’s body. You held a funeral two (2) days later. While you were there, people came to let you know that paramilitary forces have now surrounded the family home, and so none of you returned home that day. Indeed, to this day, the house remains abandoned. 

[14] Younger brother also described the role of the CPC. These are neighbourhood councils which keep an eye on the behaviour of residents in the neighbourhood and inform other branches of the government about who is critical of the government and who has been active in protests. 

[15] Older brother stated that he had worked XXXX XXXX XXXX for XXXX years. His position was a relatively lowly one (1). He described how the employees were forced to attend rallies in support of the government. Failure to do so could result in imprisonment or being fired. He testified that he was also forced to vote. However, he could cast his ballot in secret, and so he often spoiled his ballot. He did not vote for a particular party because he figured the elections were rigged. 

[16] Younger brother described the photos that you collectively included in your disclosure. These include numerous photos of your father and other family members at the protests. There is a particularly powerful image of your father in a t-shirt which has the logo or image of a clenched fist, and in the photo, your father is carrying a Nicaraguan flag. This was the photo that was used in the document that was prepared for your father’s funeral. 

[17] Other corroborative documents include, one (1), a letter from the female claimant’s aunt, and she says that she gave you a place to stay in a remote area of Nicaragua. She said that the younger brother was eventually forced to leave because the CPC, the Citizen Power Council, was zeroing in on younger brother, and so younger brother left several months before the female claimant and minor claimants. He was at greater risk than the female claimant and minor claimants, and the family did not have enough money for all of them to leave together. Two (2), a copy of your father’s death certificate. This document confirms that your father was killed by a firearm on XXXX XXXX, 2018. Three (3), a letter from the Defence and Denunciation Program. This confirms that you have filed a complaint or denunciation about the murder of your father and that you or your father had received acts of harassment, intimidation, persecution, and death threats at the hands of police officers and paramilitary forces as a result of your father taking part in peaceful demonstrations. Four (4), a social media post from your mother, who is now in Costa Rica. Five (5), a letter from XXXX (ph), a friend who would pass you information about the protests. In testimony, younger brother explained that XXXX was active at the university and a good friend to your father in particular. He is now outside Nicaragua himself. He is in the United States. 

[18] I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of any of these documents and find them to be corroborative of your allegations and your testimony. In particular, I accept that the adult claimants attended protests in 2018 along with your father and other members of your family. I find that your father was murdered by government agents on his way to a protest and that your family was subsequently threatened by paramilitaries who had surrounded and fired at your home both while you were present in the home and while you were at your father’s funeral. It is this pressure which ultimately forced you into hiding and exile. 

Well-Founded Fear of Persecution

[19] The next question is whether you have a well-founded fear of persecution, and I find that you do. This is a two (2) part test. The first part requires that I assess whether you are actually afraid to return to your country. The second part requires that I consider whether your fear is reasonable, whether you have good reason to be afraid. 

[20] It is clear that you are afraid to return. Your family, which appears to have been a cohesive group until 2018, is now scattered, living in poverty and with uncertainty in different parts of Nicaragua, Central America, and North America. The family home remains empty and abandoned. 

[21] I further find that your fear of harm is well-founded, and here, I am going to focus on the reports in the Immigration and Refugee Board’s National Documentation Package for Nicaragua. A BTI report at Tab 1.5 of the NDP records as follows. From a political perspective, the situation in the country has only worsened since the April 2018 crisis, when the largest demonstrations in Nicaragua’s recent history led to significant political violence perpetrated by police and paramilitaries, leading to hundreds of deaths, injuries, and detentions. But even under international pressure, the Daniel Ortega government has continued to rule the country with a heavy hand, intimidating and persecuting opponents, banning demonstrations, prohibiting foreign ties, and increasing its own armed presence throughout the country. The government has intensified its crackdown on civil society and the free press by revoking the legal registration of NGOs, closing media outlets, arresting journalists, and ending the mandates of several international human rights monitoring organizations. 

[22] The Freedom House report at Tab 2.3 of the NDP reports that President Ortega has ordered the police and supporters of the government to use violence to repress peaceful demonstrations and any other form of dissent. The rule of law collapsed as the government moved to put down the protests of 2018. Rights monitors have reported the deaths of at least 325 people as well as extrajudicial detentions, disappearances, and torture. Anti-government activists report being under surveillance and monitoring, and Ortega has consolidated his power with sweeping arrests of his political opponents. Freedom House accords Nicaragua a freedom score of 23 out of 100, meaning not free. 

[23] According to the US State Department, the Ortega government has instituted a policy of exile, prison, or death for opponents. The government has amended terrorism laws to include pro-democracy activities and has characterized civil society actors as terrorists, assassins, and putschists. Once arrested, people perceived to be political opponents may be held in pre-trial detention for long periods, are prohibited contact with family, and are subjected to torture and sexual violence. 

[24] Of particular relevance for the minor claimants, the US Department’s report for 2022 found at Tab 2.1 also reports that family members are punished for alleged offences by relatives. Family members of opposition members in exile have been under surveillance, harassed, detained, and wrongfully convicted as part of government attempts to force exiled opposition members to return to the country and face arrest. 

[25] And so, five (5) years after the protest of 2018 in which your father and each of you participated, the population of Nicaragua continues to feel the impact of a police state in which the police and their armed sympathizers attack, (inaudible), threaten, and harass all those who are identified as government opponents. I therefore find that each of the adult claimants faces a risk of harassment, arrest, imprisonment, or even death because of your political beliefs and your kinship to your father, and I find that this risk constitutes persecution. I also find that the minor claimants face a serious possibility of harm amounting to persecution simply because of their kinship to you. 

State Protection

[26] I have considered whether you would be able to access protection against the harm that you fear. As the state itself is the agent of persecution, it is clear that you would not be able to get protection from the police. 

Internal Flight Alternative 

[27] I have also considered whether you might be able to avoid the harm that you fear by relocating to a different part of Nicaragua. The younger brother, the female claimant, the minor claimants did relocate to a different region in Nicaragua and were able to live there, albeit in a very precarious way, for several years. However, the CPCs appeared to be closing in on the male claimant, and so you were forced to leave. Moreover, the state is in control of the entire territory, and I find that there is no part of Nicaragua in which you can safely relocate and live. 

CONCLUSION

[28] I find that each of you meets the definition of a Convention refugee. I accept your claims.

——— REASONS CONCLUDED ———