Relatives of the lawyer, Manuel Urbina Lara, sentenced to four years for reckless homicide after being involved in a traffic accident in which a person died, denounced that since last May 3 he was transferred from the Waswalí prisonin Matagalpa, to the La Modelo National Penitentiary System, in Managua, remains isolated in gallery 300 and suffers from severe physical and mental deterioration.
During the last family visit, last Friday, September 2, his sister Amada Urbina Lara found him in “a depressing state.” He looks quite thin, he has lost between 45 and 50 pounds in weight, and he suffers from uncontrolled blood pressure.
The lawyer also recently suffered the blows he suffered months ago in the Waswalí prison, from where he was transferred unconscious to La Modelo prison, after leading a hunger strike along with three other political prisoners of the Daniel Ortega regime.
“He is no longer the same Manuel Urbina as before,” warns Pedro Gutiérrez, a family friend. “He’s down,” “sick,” “pretty bad,” he continues.
Gutiérrez also describes that the conditions in which the lawyer finds himself are quite harsh, “he says that there are too many mosquitoes, elepates, that he cannot sleep, and that (the prison authorities) do not allow him even a pen, nothing.”
Urbina Lara, critic of the Ortega regime, was sentenced in March 2021, then the Prosecutor’s Office accused him and prevented him and the family of José Rizo, victim of the accident, from reaching mediation. The relatives even reported to the Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH) that they did not file the complaint. However, the case continued ex officio until he was convicted.
The accident for which he was convicted occurred on January 24, 2021. That day the lawyer gave him RAID to Rizo, 29, and he got into the tub of Urbina Lara’s truck. However, at kilometer 172 of the highway to Pantasma, the vehicle went into an abyss.
According to the National Police version, Urbina Lara was speeding. However, the lawyer stated that the accident occurred because a car invaded his lane and that is why he lost control of the truck. That day, the lawyer made a live broadcast warning that the Ortega authorities would accuse him of being drunk.
Urbina Lara is considered one of the 205 political prisoners kept by the Daniel Ortega regime in prison, according to national human rights organizations such as the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh).
On December 31, 2021, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted him precautionary measures him and the prisoner of conscience Benjamín Gutiérrez, considering that they are “in a situation of seriousness, urgency and irreparable damage.” The IACHR also stated that as part of the protocol in the middle of last year they requested information about Urbina Lara from the Nicaraguan authorities, but received no response.
