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Tamara Dávila
Tamara Dávila Rivas (born c. 1981)[1] is a Nicaraguan sociologist, feminist and political activist. She is a member of Union for Democratic Renewal (Unamos); the Political Council of the National Unity Blue and White opposition group; and the executive committee of the unified opposition front, the National Coalition. On June 13, 2021, she was part of a wave of arrests of opposition figures by the government of Daniel Ortega. Early lifeTamara Dávila is the daughter of late Sandinista revolutionaries Sadie María Rivas Reed and Irving Dávila Escobar.[2] After her mother died in a car accident in 1999, her father remarried María Josefina Vigil Gurdián, sister of Ana Margarita Vijil,[2] former president of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS).[3] Dávila is thus considered Vijil's niece.[2] She is a psychologist who has worked in the social field,[4] fighting for human rights and gender equality.[5] She has a master's degree in Gender, Identity and Citizenship from the University of Huelva in Spain as well as a master's in Social Policies, Rights and Protagonism of Children and Adolescents from the Central American University (UCA).[4] Activism Dávila has been politically active in the anti-government protests that began in 2018, participating in demonstrations and once getting arrested.[4] She is a member of Union for Democratic Renewal (Unamos) and the Political Council of the National Unity Blue and White opposition group.[3] In July 2020, she was named as one of its representatives to the executive committee of the unified opposition, the National Coalition.[1] Because of harassment Dávila faced for her human rights work, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued precautionary measures intended to ensure her safety.[4] On June 12, 2021, Dávila was arrested by the government of Daniel Ortega in a series of arrests of opposition candidates for president and other opposition leaders.[3] Her house was raided while she was home with her four-year-old daughter and the police subsequently released a statement indicating she, like many of the other arrested opposition figures, was being investigated for alleged “acts that undermine independence, sovereignty, and self-determination", that is, violating the controversial Law 1055, called the Guillotine Law by critics.[3] It was one of four laws passed in December 2020 granting broad power to the government to make a unilateral designation of citizens as “traitors to the homeland”.[6][7] Two days after her arrest, the Public Prosecutor's Office announced Dávila and others would be held for 90 days of preventative detention while being investigated.[8] Vijil was arrested on June 13 at her home with former Sandinista commander Dora María Téllez, who was also arrested.[8] On 19 July 2021, the IACHR ruled that Dávila was in a situation of “extreme gravity, urgency and imminent danger of irreparable damage to [her] rights” and issued precautionary measures to protect her and her immediate family members, including ordering her immediate release by the Nicaraguan government.[9] References
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