After being arbitrarily detained, last Saturday, May 13, the opponent and member of the Nicaraguan University Alliance (AUN) Larry Montes Astorga he made the forced decision to go into exile. The accusation against him and the obligation to appear before the Police to sign without an established time limit were the factors that led to his decision to leave the country.
The Prosecutor’s Office accused the young man, 25 years old and originally from Juigalpa, Chontales, before the head of the Tenth Criminal Court of Managua, Antenor Fuentesfor the crimes of undermining national integrity and cybercrimes, for which on Sunday, June 11, after spending almost a month under the measure imposed by the authorities, he was forced to flee Nicaragua.
In interview with Article 66 The also lawyer explained that he chose to go into exile because indeed the precautionary regime of presenting himself to the police station of his municipality to sign “is not to be free.”
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«They (the Ortega Murillo administration) are never as constant with their actions. Today they do one thing and tomorrow another, so, just as they gave me the precautionary measure to sign, later on they could change that measure. They could put me in prison, then more than anything for that (I went into exile) and because I was not calm going to sign every day, because that was definitely uncomfortable, “said the young opponent.
«If I have learned something in all this time, it is that you never have to say that they are not going to do this or that they are not capable of doing it. They are capable of doing whatever and it is probable that after this measure what I saw coming was definitely that they would arrest me, send me to Chipote or later to the penitentiary center, “he said.
“In any moment, I saw that I was going to be freebecause he was with a measure and indeed that is not being free, “he added.
More than 10 police officers came to arrest him.
Once outside of Nicaragua, without revealing his current location, Larry Montes Astorga has denounced that during his detention he was the victim of robbery. Police officers took a cell phone, a tablet, and a computer from him, which until now remain in the hands of the authorities.
The political activist also pointed out that at least 14 agents showed up at his house to arrest him on May 13. In addition, he indicated that the police officers and civilians who detained him were not from Juigalpa.
«I didn’t know any of them, you know the town’s policemen. They were all from Managua, I suppose, or from some other district, another city, but not from Juigalpa,” he said.
Montes also denounced that the officers did not explain the reasons for his arrest, they simply told him to get on the patrol, they made him sign the requisition and then they transferred him to the Managua Judicial Complex, where he was subjected to a preliminary hearing.
“They did not explain anything, they did not say anything at all, only one officer said, as well as that tell Larry to come out, We already know he’s there.”; They told a relative that way, but they did not explain the reason for my arrest. In addition, they took several photos of me there when I was in the living room, they sat me on a sofa in the living room and took several photos and videos of me,” said the AUN member.
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The police officers “didn’t treat me badly, or anything like that, they didn’t hit me or anything, and they were calm, because at least I know that they were even vulgarizing other people, they didn’t do anything to him, but they were like saying things to They didn’t tell me anything, they were silent, all the way to Managua,” he added.
The young opponent considered that the government of Ortega Murillo will probably increase the repressive escalation and return to fill the jails with political prisonerssince the regime uses the inmates as “bargaining currency”.
Since 2018, the Ortega regime unleashed a wave of repression against citizens who demonstrated peacefully. After five years of political crisis, the dictatorship has not stopped harassing Nicaraguans, persecuting, imprisoning, and banishing every voice opposed to its arbitrary policy.
