The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo arrested Max Jerez on November 29, father of the student leader of the same name captured in July 2021. This is the most recent arrest in a repressive escalation unleashed in recent weeks, which has left the least twelve people detained in different police stations.
Max Jerez Sr. joins the arbitrary arrests of Gisselle and Walkiria Ortega, aunt and niece, respectively; Francisco Hernaldo Vásquez, Rodrigo Navarrete, Óscar René Vargas, Carlos Valle, Mildred Rayo, Miguel Flores, Karla Vega, Allan Sebastián Bermúdez and Sandra del Carmen Acevedo Díaz.
The regime also detained 19 indigenous youth from the municipalities of Bilwi and Waspam, in the Autonomous Region of the North Caribbean Coast (RACCN), for 14 days. They were captured in the context of the protests sparked after the municipal electoral farce and were released on November 25.
In recent days, the release of ten other people captured in the electoral context.
Sources close to the family of Max Jerez confirmed that he was transferred to District V of the Police, in Managua, but they do not know the reasons for his arrest. They also explained that Jerez Sr. does not have a close relationship with the student leader.
They hide alleged crimes in the Ortega judicial system
Meanwhile, the regime’s Prosecutor’s Office filed a series of criminal complaints against nine of the twelve detainees. In six of these cases, the regime keeps hidden the alleged crimes committed by political opponents, in which “the State of Nicaragua and Nicaraguan society” declare themselves victims or offended.
According to the electronic system of the Judiciary, in the Sixth Criminal Court of Hearings of Managua there is a criminal accusation against Gisselle and Walkiria Ortega, aunt and niece, respectively, and Francisco Hernaldo Vásquez. The accusation was filed on Saturday, November 26 by prosecutor Sandro Peña Urbina, but the alleged crime does not appear in the digital file.
Gisselle, Walkiria and Francisco were arrested by the National Police on Thursday, November 24. The first of these, popularly called “La Taylor”, was arrested in 2018 for participating in the citizen protests of that year and has been under police siege ever since.
Relatives of Gisselle and Walkiria presume that the arrest of both is due to the printing of some stickers that Gisselle sent to be made at Ortega’s Multiservicios, owned by Walkiria. While Francisco, who owns Copynic, would have been arrested because he rented the printers to Ortega’s Multiservicios.
“What is known is that Walkiria sent some stickers to Guiselle, alluding to Nicaragua. There is nothing of accusation, it is really another abuse of power. They have not done anything wrong to be treated inhumanely, detained arbitrarily,” one of the relatives commented to 100% News.
Two days earlier, on Tuesday, November 22, the sociologist and writer, Oscar René Vargas, was arrested and criminally charged. According to his family, Vargas, 76, was arrested at around 10:45 am at the home of his sister Patricia, located in Bolonia.
In less than twenty-four hours after the arrest, the Public Ministry charged him without specifying the crime. The accusation indicates that the State is the offended party. The case is handled by the prosecutor is Yubelca del Carmen Pérez Alvarado and the judge is Gloria María Saavedra Corrales, who has sentenced several political prisoners.
The regime also maintains a criminal accusation without specifying a crime against the young Mildred Rayo and Miguel Flores, members of the Nicaraguan University Alliance (AUN), who were detained in the context of the municipal electoral farce.
Crimes imputed to political prisoners
In mid-November, sources from opposition organizations and the lawyer Yonarqui Martínez —who is monitoring the case as a human rights defender— confirmed that the Ortega justice accused the opposition member Karla Vega, originally from El Rosario, Carazo; Allan Sebastián Bermúdez and Sandra del Carmen Acevedo Díaz of course “conspiracy to commit detriment” and “propagation of false news”, crimes that have been instrumentalized by the Judiciary to fabricate cases against opponents, legal specialists and defenders have pointed out.
Martínez then confirmed that Vega was presented in a preliminary hearing on November 11 and the initial hearing was held on Monday the 21st.
“They kicked in our door and entered with hate. They mounted her (to the truck). There were around ten riot police. Her physical integrity and her life are in danger because since they took her out of her house they were beating her,” a relative from Vega told CONFIDENTIAL about his arrest.
Meanwhile, the relatives of the detainees carlos valleRodrigo Navarrete and Max Jerez (father), are waiting for charges to be filed against them or to be released.
