The public accountant Alexis Peralta Espinoza was having an enchilada for dinner with his mother, on the sidewalk of his home in Condega, Estelí, when by surprise two officers grabbed him by the shoulders and an officer put a key on his neck. They dragged him and beat him until he was thrown into the bathtub of a police patrol. “Kill me, but don’t kill my son,” implored Zoyla Espinoza Rivas, 88, who was pushed and beaten trying to protect him.
The arrest occurred on the night of November 6, 2021, on the eve of the general elections in which Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo secured —without political competition— one more term in the Presidency of Nicaragua.
Last February 9, Peralta, 48, was tried and found guilty of the alleged crimes of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity to the detriment of the State of Nicaragua and society,” and “spread of false news through information and communication technologies”. Both charges contemplated in the Special Cybercrime Law or “Gag Law” and Law 1055 or “Sovereignty Law”, used by the regime to criminalize freedom of expression.
The political prisoner was sentenced to eleven years in prison: six years for the alleged “conspiracy” and five years for allegedly spreading false news. In addition, they imposed a fine of 32,000 cordobas.
The record of the trial, to which he had access CONFIDENTIAL, details that the case against Peralta was based on a complaint made by citizen Alejandro Sevilla Blandón. However, the Public Ministry did not call this key witness to testify at the trial, nor did Judge Erick Ramón Laguna Averruz, of the Criminal District Court of Estelí, required his presence.
A relative of Peralta, who asked that his name be omitted for fear of reprisals, commented that the defense of the political prisoner “asked” that Sevilla Blandón be called to testify, but he did not attend the trial. “He’s supposed to be the main witness, but he just didn’t show up. And nothing happened”.
Complaint of Alejandro Sevilla
According to the trial record, Deputy Commissioner Gary Alexander Kirkland Moreno, from the Estelí delegation, received the complaint from Sevilla Blandón, who supposedly has lived in Condega for more than ten years. After listening to the citizen, the police chief accused Peralta and ordered his arrest.
At trial, Kirkland stated that the complainant assured him that Peralta, since 2018, had been calling for international sanctions to be imposed against state institutions, so that “the government would hand over power.”
In addition, he said that the public accountant, “openly” called the residents of Condega, to ignore the past votes.
The police chief acknowledged — when asked by Peralta’s defense — that he does not know what Sevilla Blandón does or if he stays at the Condega Police station.
“My complaint was limited to the information Alejandro Sevilla gave me,” Kirkland said.
In the police report, in the accusation of the Prosecutor’s Office and in the trial record, neither Sevilla Blandón’s identity card number, his occupation or exact address in Condega are specified.
“They (Police) report that (Sevilla) have known Alexis for years, but it is false, because he does not know him, he does not even live in the municipality of Condega. He has never lived here, “says Peralta’s relative, who adds:” We know that person lives in Estelí and that he is a volunteer police officer.
“They say (the police) that (Sevilla) lives from the (baseball) stadium 200 meters away, but there is no house there,” he points out. A team of CONFIDENTIAL He visited that supposed address in Seville, but there is no dwelling. On one side there is a vacant lot and on the other an evangelical temple.
“(Sevilla) does not exist in Condega, much less does Alexis know, and he is not aware that he (Peralta) has said any of the things that they (police officers) claim,” mentions the relative of the political prisoner.
Police witnesses and other cases
All the testimonies against Peralta were from police officers. Besides of deputy commissioner Kirkland, prosecutor Auxiliadora Sequeira Suazo presented as a witness Senior Noncommissioned Officer Elder Centeno Borge, from police intelligence; NCO Francisco Antonio Gutiérrez Valverde; Lieutenant Santos Leonel Lira Montalván; and officer Robin Ariel Niño Zambrana.
The Deputy Commissioner Kirkland, Noncommissioned Officer Centeno, Detective Lira and expert witness Niño also attended as witnesses in the trial against the peasant Santos Camilo Bellorín Lira, on February 11. In which Sequeira Suazo also served as prosecutor.
Likewise, Petty Officer Gutiérrez testified as an expert witness in the trial against the auditor Douglas Alfredo Cerros Lanzas53 years old, on January 27.
peralta, Cerros and Bellorín were arrested on November 6 and are being held in the Estelí prison system.. All three were found guilty and sentenced. under the “Gag Law”, and the “Sovereignty Law”, approved by Ortega in a package of repressive legislation used to direct their political hunt in 2021.
The “Gag Law” was approved by the National Assembly on October 28, 2020. This legislation establishes up to ten years in prison for citizens who, according to the regime, spread false news, through social networks and the media. .
The “Sovereignty Law” was approved on December 21, 2020. The Prosecutor’s Office has turned this legislation into a repressive tool, through which they justify the arrests against opponents of the regime.
Cerros was sentenced to twelve years in prison, while Bellorín was sentenced to eleven years.
The auditor was arrested because the head of the Judicial Assistance Directorate of Ocotal, Nueva Segovia, deputy commissioner Bayron Maradiaga Rubio, found out that Cerros supposedly called not to vote in the elections.
Judge Erick Laguna
Bellorín, 56, was accused of using social networks to create fear and anxiety in the population of Pueblo Nuevo, Estelí, although the peasant has never had an account on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or another social network in his life.
Peralta and Bellorín were sentenced for Judge Erick Ramón Laguna Averruz, of the Criminal District Court of Estelí, who in the past has favored regime sympathizers with minimum sentences.
In 2012, he imposed the minimum sentence of three and a half years in prison against Ortega fanatics and policemen, who one day after the elections of November 7, 2011, three opponents were shot dead in “the El Carrizo Massacre”.
Also, in November 2020, Judge Laguna ordered the release of the Sandinista militant Abner Pineda Castellón, who – on July 19 of that same year – murdered citizen Jorge Luis Rugama Rizo at close range, after the victim shouted: “Long live free Nicaragua!”.
Bullied since 2018
Peralta’s relative relates that, after the civic protests of 2018, the public accountant was constantly harassed by the National Police and Ortega supporters, because “they knew of his critical thoughts towards the Government.”
“Alexis had to put cameras outside his house because vans passed by and threw things at him, they left him anonymous threatening letters. He, worried about her safety and that of her daughters, decided to withdraw from everything, he even closed his Facebook, ”she explains.
Twitter was the only social network where Alexis Peralta posted political opinions or retweeted posts from other accounts. Although, the political prisoner did not have great influence, since he only has 18 followers.
The Prosecutor’s Office accused Peralta of using information technologies in cyberspace to cause “alarm, fear and anxiety” among the residents of Condega.
According to the Public Ministry, the citizen destabilized the social peace of the municipality, by sharing false news on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, about international sanctions against public officials.
“We have been Sandinistas, why am I going to deny it? My older sons were guerrillas, he (Alexis) wasn’t because he was little during the war. I know all of Nicaragua because he walked behind my children in the (Patriotic Military) Service,” says Peralta’s mother, Zoyla Espinoza Rivas.
“We have never been opponents. One, now, only has to listen and shut up, ”she adds.
According to the relative of the political prisoner, Peralta has been an opponent of the regime, although he does not have an active participation in political parties or opposition groups. “He doesn’t walk into anything, he’s not an activist, he doesn’t go to meetings, we don’t consider him a political activist.”
Lawyers and specialists in Criminal Law have detailed CONFIDENTIAL that “Twitter posts, retweets of messages from other people or international organizations, interviews with the media in which they ask for individual sanctions, interviews with police officers who contradict each other, messages on their cell phones,” are some of the the alleged evidence of the Public Ministry in the political trials.
Caring for her two daughters
Between 2007 and 2011, Peralta was co-owner and news director of a cable television channel “Canal 15 Condega TV”, which was closed in early 2011 due to political pressure.
The political prisoner and Carlos Alberto Cerda, director of the channel, denounced, in January 2011, that the company Telecable Condega canceled their transmissions after suffering months of threats and sabotage from supporters of the Sandinista Front.
“He went everywhere, as they say, you have to damage your shoes to collect information. He was looking for information to bring here (Condega) and that was what bothered them (the Ortega supporters),” says Peralta’s mother.
Cerda and Peralta explained, in 2011, that officials from local institutions They prevented them from accessing information sources, and warned them that the channel would be closed “if they did not align with the political guidelines of the government party.”
“From there, harassment began, because he (Peralta) works in institutions that have relations with the State, so they pressured him to be fired, that’s why he dedicated himself to working from home on private things,” recalls the relative of Alexis.
Peralta was studying Law at the Somoto headquarters of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN). He dedicated most of his time to taking care of his two minor daughters, since his wife emigrated to Spain, due to the country’s socioeconomic situation. In addition, he was in charge of the daily care of his 88-year-old mother, who lives alone, is hypertensive and has a heart condition.
“On the day of the visit, I took her youngest girl. She told him: ‘Daddy, why don’t you throw me in a bucket, cover it and I’ll stay with you?’ The little girl suffers, she is thin, she does not eat, just like me, I do not eat or sleep, ”says Peralta’s mother.
The lady narrates that “she had never gone to La Chácara —popular name of the Estelí prison— to see a son, or a police officer, because they have never been involved in anything. If my son (were in prison) for something more shameful, I wouldn’t even be upset because he said: ‘He’s good; he did the bad thing, let him be punished, but my son hasn’t done anything.’”
