The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua exhibited for the first time some 27 political prisoners who are imprisoned in the El Chipote police jail and whose relatives had denounced the progressive deterioration of their health. In turn, the Judicial Power of Nicaragua, accused the communicator Andrea Margarita Del Carmen, Director of Programs of the PEN Nicaragua center, closed more than a year ago, of alleged “conspiracy” against the State. The Police broke into her house to arrest her on September 14, but she was not at home and the officers took her son, Gabriel López Del Carmen, hostage.
Government exhibits prisoners and political prisoners
The last two days of August and on September 1, the Nicaraguan government exhibited for the first time 27 imprisoned opponents in the fearsome El Chipote police prison, whose relatives had denounced that they suffered from hunger, incommunicado detention and various illnesses that were not being treated. .
The detainees were taken one by one to the headquarters of the Managua courts, for alleged «informative hearings» that do not exist as such in the judicial regulations, according to experts consulted.
In the public exhibition, questioned by family members and humanitarian organizations, students Lesther Alemán and Max Jerez, business leader Michel Healy, opposition leader Violeta Granera, opponents Tamara Dávila, Suyen Barahona and Ana Margarita were shown, among others. Vijil, like the mythical former Sandinista commander Dora María Téllez, protagonist of guerrilla exploits in the 70s, when Daniel Ortega proclaimed that Nicaragua would never live under the boot of another dictator like Anastasio Somoza, until then the most cruel and bloodthirsty in history. .
For the sociologist Sara Henríquez, a human rights defender and exile, Ortega exhibited the detainees to disqualify the complaints of family members who claimed that their lives were in danger. «But it got the opposite result, because those photos and videos only reaffirmed that they are being tortured, in isolation and starving,» he said.
Among the detainees presented at these informative hearings were journalists Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, general manager of the newspaper La Prensa; Miguel Mora, former candidate for the Presidency of Nicaragua, and the sports writer Miguel Mendoza.
“The public display of the political prisoners was not proof of life. It was a confirmation that the regime subjects them to psychological torture by denying them natural light, healthy food, the right to read a book or to communicate with their families. All of this is ‘white torture,’” Henriquez said .
August, the month with the most political arrests in 2022
Last August, the Nicaraguan government unleashed the largest wave of arrests for “political reasons” in 2022, according to data from the Blue and White National Monitoring and the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners.
Between August 1 and 28, 31 arbitrary arrests were recorded; of these, 15 for “political reasons”. Of the 15 detained citizens, according to the Mechanism, one was banished to their country of origin, six were released and eight are still imprisoned: one under house arrest and seven in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), known as El Chipote.
Among the eight people who are still detained is Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, bishop of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, who has been in jail since August 19. Also imprisoned are seven people who accompanied Álvarez in the curia and who were later transferred to El Chipote: three priests, two seminarians and a layman.
Increases to 205 number of prisoners of conscience
According to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners, whose data is endorsed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the number of people imprisoned for political reasons increased to 205.
Of that total, 195 were captured in the last four years, after the April 2018 protests, and 10 were already in prison. Of the 205 political prisoners, 20 are women, according to the same report.
The registry includes 16 people (14 men and 2 women) recognized as political prisoners and who were captured between May and August 2022, but their names have been withheld at the request of their relatives.
1,775 NGOs have been closed in Nicaragua On September 1, the Nicaraguan government closed another 100 NGOs, bringing the number of non-profit entities closed since 2018 to 1,775, the vast majority of which were outlawed during the present year.
«In this way, the arbitrary closures of community development, women’s, environmental, indigenous, autonomous, social promotion and political rights organizations that served the most vulnerable sectors of the country are consolidated,» denounced the human rights organization «Nicaragua never More”, formed in Costa Rica by Nicaraguan defenders forced into exile.
They denounce raids of opponents and captures of relatives
Daniel Ortega’s regime has implemented a new modality in its repressive escalation: kidnapping for ransom and imprisonment of relatives of political opponents, denounced human rights organizations and opposition organizations.
In mid-September, the police captured the wife, daughter and son-in-law of opposition figure Javier Álvarez Zamora, who hours before had crossed the border from his country to Costa Rica to request international protection. Álvarez revealed that the authorities sent him a message: “we will only release you if you surrender.”
These arrests coincided with several police raids against activists and members of the UNAMOS political movement in different parts of the country. According to the Nicaraguan Human Rights Committee (CENIDH), at least 10 people were captured in less than a week, adding to the list of more than 205 political prisoners held in Nicaragua.
New cases of migratory repression
During the month of September, the Nicaraguan regime prohibited several Nicaraguans from entering the country, violating the Political Constitution that guarantees the right of people to free movement to and from the national territory, as well as within it.
One of those affected was the feminist sociologist María Teresa Blandón, whose NGO La Corriente was banned this year by the government, along with more than 1,800 non-profit organizations that have suffered the same fate. Blandón made a work trip abroad and, upon returning, he was prevented from entering the country.
The same prohibition was suffered by the priest Juan de Dios García, vicar of the parish of Santo Cristo de Las Colinas, in Managua, who had traveled to Miami; and the lawyer Francisco Gutiérrez, proposed as defender of the priest Leonardo Urbina, imprisoned and prosecuted for alleged sexual abuse.
“There is no legal basis to prevent a National from entering the country. What they have done is impudence and a crime” with those affected, Nicaraguan lawyer Yonarqui Martínez protested .
PEN Nicaragua communicator accused of alleged “conspiracy”
Daniel Ortega’s regime accused of alleged «conspiracy» against the State the communicator Andrea Margarita Del Carmen, Director of Programs of the PEN Nicaragua center, closed more than a year ago. The Police broke into her house to arrest her on September 14, but she was not in the house and the troops took her son, Gabriel López Del Carmen, as a hostage, locked up in the El Chipote prison and accused by the same crime. Due to police persecution, Andrea Margarita was forced to leave the country.
International PEN demands from the Nicaraguan regime the immediate release of Gabriel López Del Carmen and the withdrawal of all charges against him and our colleague, as well as the release of the more than 205 political prisoners held in the country’s prisons. unfair and arbitrary manner.
This is part of a new police-judicial onslaught, in which Ortega accused 17 Nicaraguans of conspiracy and spreading false news, including five relatives of politically persecuted hostages, and four workers of the newspaper La Prensa (a reporter, a administrative secretary and two drivers, both detained two months ago).
Chronicler Miguel Mendoza on hunger strike to see his daughter
The journalist Miguel Mendoza maintains a hunger strike in prison so that he is allowed to be visited by his eight-year-old daughter Alejandra. The sports writer was sentenced to nine years in prison for posting messages critical of the government on Twitter and Facebook and is under solitary confinement in El Chipote prison.
His 11 requests to the Justice to allow a visit from his daughter have not been answered. For this reason, before visiting him once a month, his wife Margine Pozo memorizes every word that the girl dedicates to him, and each one of the many drawings she makes is recorded in her mind, to later tell Mendoza about it.
Only 10 family visits have been allowed in 15 months of captivity, and under exaggerated control measures. “When we arrive at reception they search us, they make me undress, take off my clothes,” says Margine Pozo. “To me that is sexual assault. They do it to prevent you from carrying messages from children marked on your body,” he says.