Photo gallery: Hugo Torres, the ex-guerrilla fighter who freed Somoza’s political prisoners, including Daniel Ortega

Former guerrilla fighter Hugo Torres Jiménez, retired brigadier general, political prisoner of the Daniel Ortega regime, and who passed away this Saturday, February 12, He was the only one among the former cadres of the Sandinista Front who risked his life in two military operations to free prisoners of conscience during the Somocista dictatorship, including Daniel Ortega himself, who ended up becoming the executioner of his last days.

Torres Jiménez died at the age of 73, after more than two months in which Ortega kept his physical whereabouts and health condition hidden, after he was imprisoned on June 13, 2021 in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ) , the “Chipote”. His capture was the result of a political hunt against the leadership of the Renovating Democratic Union (Unamos), which included the historian and former guerrilla, Dora María Téllez, -sentenced to eight years in prison- and the vice chancellor of Nicaragua, Víctor Hugo Tinoco.

Torres joined the Sandinista Front in 1971 and in July 1974, without completing his law studies, he went into hiding, says former guerrilla Mónica Baltodano, in her memory of the armed struggle. The operation in which he freed Ortega was called December Victorious, They kidnapped Somocista government officials who attended a party and the commando negotiated the release of prisoners of conscience.

This is a tour of Torres through some of the main moments he experienced during the first Sandinista government, from which he separated in the 1990s and became one of his main critics.

“I am 73 years old. I never thought that at this stage of my life I would be fighting in a civic and peaceful way against a new dictatorship,” Torres said in a video recorded before his arrest. “These are desperate blows by a regime that feels moribund, that has no legal basis, that has no justification to remain in power,” he added.