Relatives of the political prisoners lamented that the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo did not allow them to see their relatives at Christmas. They assure that neither the authorities of the National Penitentiary System (SPN) nor the Police confirmed their visits for that day, but they expected a gesture of humanity from the ruling couple, which did not occur.
Ana Lucía Álvarez, sister and niece of the political prisoners, Tamara Dávila and Ana Margarita Vijil, explained that in the Evaristo Vásquez police complex, known as “nuevo Chipote”, they never responded to the concerns of the relatives of the inmates about the visit in occasion of the Christmas and New Year festivities.
“They always told us that they did not know (if there would be visitors), that they did not know, and in the end they did not give them to us,” Álvarez said.
Also, Carolina Jirón, mother of the political prisoner Samanta Jirón, stated that in the “La Esperanza” Women’s prison they never confirmed their Christmas visit, but warned that they had promised to notify them by phone and did not do so.
“I’ve spent the whole day glued to the phone waiting for that call, apparently it won’t happen. For me there is no Christmas, for me there is nothing as long as my daughter is not free, while those who are dead do not have justice ”, he lamented.
Regime ignored the demand for freedom
Relatives of prisoners of conscience and national and international organizations, with the echo of the international community, launched at the end of November the fourth “Christmas without political prisoners” campaign. However, the demand for freedom was ignored by the Ortega y Murillo regime, which excluded the political prisoners from a thousand convicts who were released on Christmas Eve.
Among the political prisoners of the regime are seven presidential candidates from the opposition, civic and political leaders, ex-workers of non-governmental organizations, independent professionals, student leaders, peasant leaders, journalists, former diplomats, businessmen and activists, who remain isolated and under psychological torture. .
Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes also advocated this Friday, December 24, for migrants and prisoners, at the mass dedicated to Christmas.
“How can we not remember today and be close to those families who have lost a loved one, that one of their members has had to leave, that they have emigrated. How not to be close to those families who have a member, a relative, a friend, deprived of liberty, “said the cardinal during the homily held at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua.
In addition, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cendh) regretted on its Twitter account that these 166 political prisoners spent Christmas “between four walls” and without family visits.
