The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) deplored the sentence against Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, general manager of La Prensa and regional vice president of the IAPA in Nicaragua. On March 23, the political prisoner was found guilty for the alleged crimes of “customs fraud and money laundering”, in a political trial that lasted two days.
The IAPA considered that “once again the regime viciously demonstrated its intolerance of different thinking and freedoms” by prosecuting, persecuting, and ending the print edition of the oldest newspaper in Nicaragua, which recently celebrated its 96th anniversary. The regime turned Nicaragua into the only country in the Americas without printed newspapers.
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The president of the IAPA, Jorge Canahuati, and the president of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Carlos Jornet, agreed to condemn “the savage Ortega-Murillo dictatorship that uses justice and invented crimes to lock up, under a supposed of legality, whom he calls opponents. Once again the regime viciously demonstrated its intolerance of different thinking and freedoms».
IAPA directors recalled that Holmann Chamorro had been awarded the IAPA Grand Prize for Press Freedom in 2021 due to the punishment and reprisals he suffered from the regime of Daniel Ortega and his wife and Vice President Rosario Murillo.
“It seems that we have to speak out daily against the gall of the regime. On this occasion, we deeply regret the sentence against our friend, partner and colleague, who, in addition, has been suffering from serious health problems since his imprisonment on August 14, 2021, “they added.
Canahuati and Jornet said that the serious situation of freedom of expression and of the press in Nicaragua will be one of the main topics of the mid-year meeting of the IAPA, scheduled virtually from April 19 to 21. The issue will also be part of the agenda of an IAPA mission that will travel to Washington DC next May.
Other directors of the newspaper are also imprisoned and sentenced for various crimes such as Cristiana Chamorro, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, both accused of laundering money, goods and assets. Cristiana was sentenced to eight years in prison and Pedro Joaquín to nine. Journalists Miguel Mora and Miguel Mendoza have been serving sentences of 13 and nine years, respectively, since February.
“The IAPA barometer that measures the performance of institutions in terms of freedom of expression and the press, Chapultepec Indexhas included Nicaragua for two consecutive years as one of the three countries in the Americas, along with Venezuela and Cuba, without freedom of the press”, highlights the IAPA.
