Economist José Adán Aguerri Chamorro, former president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep), Nicaragua’s main employer, was sent back to prison to serve a 13-year sentence for crimes considered “treason against the fatherland,” they reported this Thursday to EFE political sources.
Aguerri, who since mid-August had been serving the sentence imposed by Judge Félix Salmerón at home due to health problems, was transferred to the “El Chipote” police prison, officially known as the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, according to his relatives. .
There are no reasons to transfer Aguerri
Until now, the Public Ministry has not reported on the reasons for the change in prison measures for Aguerri.
Neither the Justice nor the Prosecutor’s Office have specified the state of health of Aguerri, 60, and who lost his mother during his confinement and did not obtain permission from the authorities to attend his funeral.
Related news: Ortega regime returns José Adán Aguerri to the cells of Chipote
“If we are guided by logic, there is no reason to change the measure, because the main one is that there is a danger of evading serving the sentence, but these people are (in their homes) under the same coercive measures as in El Chipote,” said the leader of the opposition Blue and White National Unity, Juan Diego Barberena, in an audio sent to the press.
The business leader was arrested on June 8, 2021 by the National Police in the midst of a wave of arrests before the presidential elections of November 7 of that year, which put more than 60 opposition, student, and peasant leaders in jail. , journalists and independent professionals, including seven dissidents who aspired to compete for the Presidency.
The Nicaraguan state, controlled by the Sandinistas, has charged these people with charges related to “treason against the country” or economic crimes such as money laundering, as well as other crimes, which are denied by both those affected and their families.
THEY QUESTION ORTEGA
“What happens in El Chipote? We directly ask the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, who together with the complacent Police, run over any legal, national and international norm”, questioned, for its part, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh).
The former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) Arturo McFields, who last March separated from the Ortega government, which he denounced for human rights violations, expressed himself in the same vein.
“The return of José Adán Aguerri to Chipote is immoral, illegal and arbitrary. Ortega as a gangster is beaten in his finances, with his pockets broken, and continues to extort money from private companies, targeting one of its leaders,” McFields said on his Twitter account, where he demanded “freedom for the 220 political prisoners.”
Related news: José Adán Aguerri, sent home to jail for health problems
Until now, COSEP has not commented on its former director.
The Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy, an opposition organization to which the businessman belonged, published on its social networks the photographs of several imprisoned dissidents, including Aguerri, with the text: “They are imprisoned for wanting a free, fair and democratic Freedom because they are innocent!
President Ortega has branded the imprisoned, tried and convicted opponents as “traitors to the country”, “criminals” and “sons of bitches of the Yankee imperialists”.
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has been accentuated after the controversial general elections of November 7, 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo. , as vice president, with her main contenders in prison.
Ortega, who turns 77 tomorrow, has been in power for 15 years and 10 consecutive months, amid allegations of authoritarianism and electoral fraud.