Opponents of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo called it “mockery and cynicism” that the Sandinista leader had requested a list of political prisoners in order to banish them. Héctor Mairena, a member of the Political Council of the Blue and White National Unity (Unab), assures that Ortega will have to “swallow” his words because he tries to deny the existence of political prisoners.
“Now they are inventing that there are more political prisoners, so I tell all those governments, along with the United States, that talk about there being more political prisoners, that they send us the list and that we are going to send them to them,” he said. defiant Ortega last Saturday, April 15, with a notable interest in banishing any critic of his government.
For the released political prisoner Allan Gómez, a member of the Union of Nicaraguan Political Prisoners and Prisoners (UPPN), Ortega’s words are a “mockery” against the direct victims of crimes against humanity, in this case, unaware of the existence of people who have suffered and are suffering arbitrary detention by the Daniel Ortega regime.
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“This is not new in Nicaragua, since 2018 they have ignored all the abuses and violations of human rights against the Nicaraguan people. They have tried to erase memory with the declaration of April 19 as Peace Day, which is a mockery of the victims, of the people who have suffered the abuses of the dictatorship,” said Gómez.
“It is absurd that the dictatorship continues to ignore these victims who suffer arbitrary detention and that it tries to erase the memory of the abuses against the Nicaraguan people. We are going to continue exposing the crimes of the dictatorship, carrying out reports and permanent campaigns for the freedom of political prisoners”, he added.
More than 50 political prisoners
Mairena considers that Ortega’s words “are part of the nature of his message characterized by cynicism, but also seem to me a mockery of the relatives of the political prisoners, the political prisoners themselves.”
The opponent recalled that, starting from Easter, the dictatorship unleashed a new escalation of arbitrary arrests and political prisoners would already add up to more than 50. According to the Blue and White Monitoring (MAB), 21 people were arrested from the first to the new April , in the frame of Holy Week.
“We are already talking about more than 50 political prisoners. This includes the 35 who were already (in prison) before Easter. These statements try, as on so many other occasions, to erase and ignore reality, to deny the repressive acts that they are carrying out,” he stated.
“What Ortega does is react with cynicism in his words, words that he is going to have to swallow, it was like that before, he denied that there were political prisoners in Nicaragua and said at some point that they were never going to get out of jail and pressured by the international community and the repudiation of part of the Nicaraguan population, Ortega had, much to his regret, to be released on February 9, but the repression has continued,” he added.
Mairena predicted that sooner or later the dictator will agree to the demands of the international community and the Nicaraguan citizens that the political prisoners be released, including Bishop Rolando Álvarez. “They are infamous and cynical words, which always characterize Ortega,” she concluded.
