The Union of Political Prisoners (UPPN), through its social networks, released an alert demanding the release of political prisoner Jaime Navarrete Blandón, who despite having served, in January 2023, the illegal and arbitrary sentence imposed on him by the Ortega regime for political reasons, added another 20 months of confinement to that sentence.
Navarrete Blandón, the organization notes, was arrested for the first time on June 16, 2018, accused of allegedly murdering a “paramilitary” during the social protests that began in April of that year and sentenced to 24 years in prison, although the same regime later released him on June 11, 2019, under the controversial Amnesty Law.
The protester did not last a month in freedom when the regime ordered a second kidnapping. Navarrete Blandón was arrested again on July 24, 2019, according to the UPPN, “under new false accusations,” this time related to possession of “psychotropic narcotics, other controlled substances and illegal possession of weapons,” for which he was sentenced to three years and six months in prison, which were completed in January 2023.
The Union of Political Prisoners denounced that despite the completion of the term of the illegal and arbitrary sentence, the prisoner of conscience remains “imprisoned in inhumane conditions in ‘La 300’ (maximum security cell)” of the Jorge Navarro Penitentiary System, known as La Modelo, in Tipitapa.
Tortures
Navarrete’s family and the UPPN have repeatedly denounced that the political prisoner has been the victim of constant beatings in La Modelo. In this new alert, the UPPN indicated that part of the consequences of these physical tortures caused Navarrete “fractures in the nasal septum and ribs, which has caused him respiratory problems and difficulties in walking without receiving adequate medical attention.”
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He also noted that the prison authorities continue to deny this prisoner “the right to receive family visits,” which has “increased concern for his well-being” for the family.
The Union of Political Prisoners recalled that Margine Blandón, Navarrete’s mother, has in recent months reiterated her “desperate call to the authorities” for the release of her son, highlighting that as an organization they join this call for “immediate freedom” for Jaime and the more than 36 political prisoners that the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship keeps in the different prisons of the country.
