The PEN International organization denounces that the accusation against the oppositionist Andrea Margarita del Carmen and the imprisonment of her son Gabriel López del Carmen constitutes “another proof of the most recent wave of police and judicial harassment” in Nicaragua imposed by the regime.
Gabriel López, 34, son of the activist and member of the Unión Democrática Renovadora (Unamos), became one more hostage of the Nicaraguan dictatorship, because the new tactic of the Ortega Murillo is to imprison relatives of opponents If you can’t find the person you’re looking for. Given this, “International PEN categorically rejects the accusations and condemns the trial of our partner, we demand that all charges be dropped and that her son be released immediately.”
Related news: Ortega imprisons the son of persecuted politician Andrea Margarita del Carmen
“Gabriel has been taken hostage by the court system in an attempt to force his mother to come forward. Daniel Ortega must release political prisoners, including journalists and media workers imprisoned without having committed any crime,” denounced Romana Cacchioli, executive director of the organization.
The organization rejects that “a deep and generalized wave of censorship imposed by the Nicaraguan government has forced PEN members to leave the country for their safety due to incessant violent threats, along with the forced exile of more than 160 journalists, writers and artists who have also been forced to leave their country because of their work and because of threats to their freedom and free expression».
López was arrested on September 14, after the police broke into her house to arrest her, but she was not in the house and they detained her son as a hostage who, according to the organization, is in the Judicial Assistance Directorate in Managua known as “El Nuevo Chipote”.
The regime assigns him the alleged crime of “conspiring to undermine national integrity”, under Law 1055, the Sovereignty Law, legislation with which the dictatorship has imprisoned several opposition leaders.
Related news: They denounce the serious consequences that political prisoners reflect due to captivity
According to case 021724-ORM4-2022-PN, the prosecutor Andrea del Carmen Salas Gómez was in charge of presenting the accusation against Andrea Margarita’s son. The case will be processed in the sixth criminal court with Judge Rolando Salvador Sanarrusia Munguía.
“International PEN demands the immediate release of Gabriel López Del Carmen and that all charges against him and his mother, our colleague Andrea Margarita Del Carmen, be dropped. It also asks the international community to condemn the arbitrary arrests and protest the systematic violation of human rights in Nicaragua”, concludes the organization that defends freedom of expression.
