the peasant leaders Medardo Mairena, Pedro Mena and Freddy Navas The Directorate of Judicial Assistance, known as “El Nuevo Chipote”, a torture prison, has been detained for nine months, according to complaints from relatives of political prisoners. Mairena, Mena and Navas were captured in Managua on July 5, 2021.
The three leaders were violently detained in their homes and this is the second time they have been imprisoned by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. In 2018, they were charged with alleged terrorism and Mairena was sentenced to more than 200 years in prison.
The leaders of the Peasant Movement were accused by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo of violating Law 1055, the Sovereignty Law and, through the Public Ministry, accused them of “treason against the fatherland” for allegedly requesting military intervention, sanctions against Nicaragua, among other crimes.
They were found guilty of “undermining national integrity”. Mairena was sentenced to 13 years in prison, Mena and Navas were sentenced to 10 years each.
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The Peasant Movement on its Twitter account recalled that political prisoners face “9 months of unjust kidnapping.” “We cannot forget that the dictatorship kidnapped them for being opponents, for demanding justice and freedom. The dictator is afraid of them. Nine months later, we peasants do not get tired of demanding their freedom,” they published.
The relatives of the prisoners of conscience and the Peasant Movement denounced that the three have lost weight and continue to be the object of constant interrogations, poor nutrition and psychological abuse. The leaders have been a critical voice against the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship in the face of the siege and violations of rights suffered by peasants in the country.
The political prisoners of the dictatorship, who were accused of various crimes during the 2018 repression, were released under the controversial Amnesty Law in June 2019, which is now unknown by the sanctioned Police who re-imprisoned them a few months after the presidential elections on November 7, 2021.
