Pro-government forces in Nicaragua committed human rights abuses including torture in suppressing recent protests against President Daniel Ortega, and top officials should face sanctions, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Wednesday.
After demonstrations against Ortega broke out in April 2018, more than 700 people were arrested and 325 mostly opposition protesters died in clashes with security forces, creating the country's worst crisis since a bloody civil war in the 1980s.
Human Rights Watch said it had interviewed 11 former detainees who had experienced a form of abuse, and had collectively witnessed the abuse of some 40 other people.