The political prisoner and president of the Renovating Democratic Union (Unamos), Suyen Barahona, was awarded the “Human Rights Award” granted by the Progressive Alliance. The award is a recognition of her merits as a human rights defender and a political fighter for democracy, Unamos reported on her social accounts.
“From UNAMOS we express our gratitude to the Progressive Alliance for this award, which is a recognition of our president and all the political prisoners who have made the prison the first trench of civic resistance and denunciation against the Ortega Murillo dictatorship,” highlights the political organization in an official statement.
Related news: Four members of Unamos complete 16 months in “El Chipote”
Barahona completed this Thursday, October 13, 16 months of being imprisoned in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), known as “El Chipote”. She has been imprisoned since June 13, 2021, she was accused of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and was sentenced to eight years in prison. In all this time she has been detained, she has not been able to see her five-year-old son.
Luis Blandón, director of Unamos, assured that this award to the political prisoner is a recognition of the work she has done since before April 2018. «Suyen (Barahona) has been in the front row denouncing the Ortega Murillo dictatorship so that in Nicaraguan society has respect for the entire population beyond ideological and religious differences,” he told Article 66.
«It is also a recognition that is made from Berlin in the meeting that the European left and social democratic parties have. An acknowledgment and a way to raise our voices to demand the freedom of Suyen Barahona who is unjustly imprisoned along with other members of Unamos. In addition, to put the issue on the agenda, the issue of Nicaragua where there are more than 220 political people », she added.
The Progressive Alliance is made up of more than 140 political and social, progressive, democratic and social democratic parties and organizations from around the world. In the past, this award has been received by Lorena Etta Rosales, a Philippine political leader, in 2017; the former president of Chile, Michelle Bachellet, in 2018; and in 2019 Selahattin Dermittas, political prisoner in Turkey since 2016