A former opposition councilor to the Government of Nicaragua, Carlos Valle, was arrested in Managua after his family opted for exile, as denounced on Monday by the Nicaragua Nunca Más Human Rights Collective.
According to the complaint, Valle was detained during a series of arrests carried out in the days prior to the municipal elections on the 7th, in which the pro-government Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) won all of Nicaragua’s mayoralties ( 153).
The former opposition councilor of the Managua Mayor’s Office (2005-2009) “was kidnapped by police officers who arrived at his house with violence and without presenting any arrest warrant,” the Collective detailed.
The dissident’s capture would have occurred days after Valle’s wife, children and a grandson fled the country allegedly due to pressure from the government of President Daniel Ortega.
“Elsa along with her mother, her three-month-old baby and her siblings went into exile due to the constant siege and repression experienced by families and people released from political prisons in Nicaragua,” the Collective indicated.
Related news: Carlos Valle is in prison and sick, his family fears for his health
Elsa, Valle’s eldest daughter, is an ex-convict opposition member, who became known in the 2018 sociopolitical crisis, when her father walked the main streets of Managua with a poster demanding her freedom, and for denouncing that she suffered an abortion as a product of the blows he suffered in prison.
The Nicaraguan authorities have neither denied nor confirmed the information about Valle, whose whereabouts are unknown.
This is the second time that Valle, who suffers from hypertension, has been captured by the National Police. In 2018 he spent three months in prison after demanding the release of his daughter.
“The Collective demands the immediate release of Don Carlos, respect for his integrity and personal safety, the cessation of persecution and the application of unconstitutional and arbitrary laws, and the full freedom of all political prisoners in Nicaragua,” the organization highlighted.
According to data endorsed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), there are currently at least 220 people in Nicaragua considered “political prisoners.” The data does not include 21 people who were allegedly captured in the context of the recent municipal elections.
Related news: Former politician Carlos Valle, once again, was arrested by the Ortega dictatorship
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has worsened after the controversial general elections of November 7, 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth in a row and second together with his wife, Rosario Murillo. , as vice president, with her main contenders in prison, according to complaints.
President Ortega has branded the imprisoned, tried and convicted opponents as “traitors to the homeland”, “criminals” and “sons of bitches of the Yankee imperialists”.
