Last August, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo 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. ANDBetween 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.
Members of the Mechanism explained to CONFIDENTIAL that among the eight people still detained was Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, who is in House for jail since August 19, when he was removed by riot police from the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa, where he remained surrounded by the Police for 15 days, and transferred to a house in Managua.
It also includes seven other people who accompanied Álvarez in the curia and who were later transferred to El Chipote, among them: the priests José Luis Díaz, Sadiel Eugarrios, Ramiro Tijerino and Raúl González; seminarians Darvin Leyva and Melkin Sequeira; and cameraman Sergio Cárdenas. The bishop and the seven religious are detained without having been charged so far.
Nicaraguan Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes said that Álvarez, despite these conditions, is fine. “I have been talking with him (…) He told me that he is very well about his health. I found him in better spirits. I had a good time talking with him. And he asks us to continue praying for him and hopefully the Holy Spirit will enlighten us so that we can soon resolve this conflict.”
The second month with the most arrests in 2022 was April with 14. Of these, 13 were confirmed for “political reasons”, according to data from the Monitoring and Mechanism.
Of the 13 citizens detained for political reasons in April, according to the Mechanism, eight were released, four exiled and one remains in prison.
Human rights violations in August
August was also the second month with the most events related to human rights violations, with 131 reported incidents, according to the latest Monitoring report.
April maintains the highest record of human rights violations, with 243 incidents reported by Monitoring, the majority (123) documented in the week of the 18th to the 24th of that month, when the fourth anniversary of the April Rebellion was commemorated of 2018.
The Monitoring report detailed that, in August, incidents were recorded such as: harassment (49), raids (41), judicialization incident (38), territorial control (33), threats (22), detentions (six), torture and cruel treatment (six), deaths (three) and assaults (one).
He denounced that in August there was “alarming increase” of incidents linked to the repression unleashed by the Ortega-Murillo regime against the Catholic Church, through the arrest of priests, seminarians and parishioners, also with the closure of their media outlets and arbitrary raids on religious centers.
Among the incidents of violations of DD. H H. The raid against the Prisa company, owned by the Mexican-Nicaraguan businessman Mario Hurtado, was included, who denounced that the seizure of his business meant loss of more than four million dollars, the unemployment of more than 150 people and affectations for more than 22,000 clients, that they had left their possessions to that company as collateral for a loan.
The document mentioned the cancellation, in August, of the legal status of 307 non-profit organizations. The Ortega system accumulates 1,781 legal representations canceled between November 29, 2018 and September 1, 2022.
An analysis of CONFIDENTIAL refers that 95.8% of legal entities and operation registrations were canceled in the first eight months of 2022being June, July and August the months in which there were more eliminations.
