The Ortega regime expelled the managers of Saxo Producciones, Xóchitl Tapia and Salvador Espinoza, from Nicaragua, while the member of the Monroy and Surmenage gang, Josué Monroy, was released, but his whereabouts are unknown, confirmed sources close to the artists.
The expulsion of Tapia and Espinoza occurred this Thursday, April 21, ten days after their arbitrary detention — they were captured on April 12 — without the Police or Prosecutor’s Office of the Ortega regime reporting on their legal situation. It was confirmed that during the interrogations at the Judicial Assistance Directorate (DAJ), El Chipote, they were asked for an exit ticket from Nicaragua as a requirement to release them. The couple, together with their five-year-old son, supposedly left for Germany, through the Augusto C. Sandino International Airport.
Norma Rivera, mother of Salvador Espinoza, shared through her social media account the release of her son and his wife. “The entire family is now out of the tyrannical and dictatorial clutches that overwhelm and oppress the Nicaraguan people,” he said.
“Dten days of anguish, ten days of torture. It hurts the soul to think of the children locked up without knowing anything about the physical and psychological state in which they find themselves. I was panicking. I had no news about how Salvador and Xóchitl could be,” commented Rivera, whoHe assured that in the country a fear persists to denounce the abuses that are committed and demanded the freedom of political prisoners.
“Nicaragua, a great prison in which many people are imprisoned in their homes, in their jobs, in their pain, in their mourning, in their tears, in their impotence. Prisoners and chained hands and feet, they also have their voices chained. There are many people, families and friends of political prisoners who are swallowing their pain and screaming for fear that something will happen to them, or to their families or friends. It’s human to be afraid,” the Facebook post read.
Persecution against musicians
In the case of Monroy, the sources indicate that the citizen was deported to El Salvador, because the musician has dual nationality from that country. However, sources linked to the Salvadoran Migration Directorate confirmed to CONFIDENTIAL that, in its records, no income of the Nicaraguan citizen Josué Monroy Ortega appears.
The three artists were captured on Holy Tuesday along with music producer Leonardo Canales, director of La Anteala, who was deported to Costa Rica days before. Likewise, the regime also expelled the Italian artist Emilia Arienti, who was offered 48 hours to leave the country.
This Monday, migration authorities did not allow the entry into the country to Carlos Luis Mejia Rodriguez, member and founder of the musical group La Cuneta Son Machín. The regime’s hunt against the musicians occurs on the commemoration dates of the fourth anniversary of the April Rebellion, in which the intensification of the police siege against the victims of the massacre, released prisoners and opponents has prevailed.
Silence on arrests of musicians
The reason for the arbitrary arrests against the musicians, and the cause of the deportations, are unknown. The arrests occurred after the last April 2, the artists participated in a concert for the 15th anniversary of the Monroy and Surmenage band, an activity in which the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo was allegedly criticized, through one of the performed songs.
On the day of the kidnapping, sources close to Monroy told CONFIDENTIAL that the officers violently entered the house and took his relative “without giving any reason” and “without informing which police station they would transfer him to.” On Holy Thursday the policemen they returned home a second time and musical instruments were brought.
Producers Tapia and Espinoza were with their five-year-old son at the time of the arrest, and the police left the minor at a neighbor’s house, confirmed a source close to those involved.
Saxo Producciones, prior to the arrest of its managers, suffered concert cancellations. CONFIDENTIAL learned that the Milly Majuc band, represented by those now deported, were recently not authorized to perform a concert in San Juan del Sur, Rivas.
