Their emaciated, pale and extremely thin bodies demonstrated the torture and cruel treatment they have suffered in more than a year of confinement, but with their faces smiling and raised, portrayed by the cameras of the Ortega-Murillo regimeThey declared their innocence. Family members and human rights defenders, in an interview with the program Tonightaffirmed that the images, at first, “hit” them emotionally, but they are “proud” because when they were exhibited they gave a chair of “courage and dignity”.
In the last three days, the regime exhibited the 27 citizens it has kept locked up since 2021 in the cells of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, known as El Chipote, in invented “information hearings”, after relatives denounced that prisoners of conscience suffer from “malnutrition and extreme weight loss”, product of a drastic reduction and “incompatible with the life” in the food they receive.
Victoria Cárdenas, wife of political prisoner Juan Sebastián Chamorro, a candidate for the presidency in 2021 and member of the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy (ACJD), affirms that when she saw her partner she was “too excited” and had to “take a time to be able to see them again”, since both she and her daughter had not seen him for more than 14 months. Both are out of the country due to persecution by the regime.
“I saw my husband strong, dignified and with a lot of peace, a lot of serenity. It gave me peace of mind to know that despite the inhumane conditions, the torture to which he has been subjected, first 84 days disappeared and then incommunicado for long periods of time and without any communication with his daughter and me, he keeps his spirit intact ” , he highlighted.
Cesar Dubois, husband of Suyen Barahona, He assured that when he saw photographs of his partner he was filled with “encouragement and hope”, after 444 without having any type of communication with her because both he and his six-year-old son are out of the country due to the persecution of the Ortega regime.
“He showed us the dignity and courage with which they face the difficult situations they live in and filled us with great pride,” Dubois stressed.
In addition, he pointed out that the images “confirm the thinness and critical state of health, the result of the cruel treatment that political prisoners have had, as we have denounced on multiple occasions.”
Barahona, Dubois recalled, has lost 39 pounds in more than 14 months of confinement in El Chipote and “the photos that were released reflect that extreme thinness.”
A relative of political prisoner Irving Larios stated, on condition of anonymity, that seeing the photos of the prisoner of conscience for the family represented “a great mix of feelings, but the first ones I can describe are pain and sadness.”
“Irving had a very strong physical change, super deteriorated, the drastic weight loss in which he finds himself is remarkable. He came in at 170 pounds and is roughly 135 pounds. It was shocking to see him, he seemed like another person, he is not the same person who was taken on September 20, 2021, ”he lamented.
He denounced that the health of the prisoner of conscience “has deteriorated a lot in these months of confinement. He has had very hard crises because he is a hypertensive person and this has worsened. Recently, he had a crisis because his blood pressure shot up and he had to scream and ask for help because no one was attending him. In addition to this, he has mentioned to us that about two months ago a ball came out in his arm and no doctor has come to check on him, to do any kind of test.”
He stressed that, although it was a hard blow to see Larios in those conditions, he feels proud of his relative because, despite all these months of confinement and torture, he showed himself with “a dignified, strong look, which tells us that we have to continue fighting until he is released.”
All the people locked up since 2021 in El Chipote They have been sentenced to between seven and thirteen years in prison for the alleged crimes of “conspiracy” or “money laundering”, in trials held behind closed doors and without any type of legal or procedural guarantees, according to the complaint by defenders of human rights.
In El Chipote has also been locked up, since last August 19, seven other people who have not been publicly presented by the regime, among them: the priests Ramiro Tijerino, José Luis Díaz and Raúl González; the seminarians Darvin Leyva and Melkin Sequeira, and the cameraman Sergio Cárdenas.
They had all been locked up together to Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, Bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpawho now remains under house arrest in Managua, for 15 days in the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa, for an alleged investigation initiated by the Police of the Ortega regime.
