“We continue in the fight, this is part of the process, here no one cracks up”; “I call on you to maintain hope, to maintain mobilization, to turn indignation into action”; “We are not going to shut up,” were the last words of Ana, Suyén and Tamara before being arrested by the Ortega police more than five months ago.
The political prisoners Tamara Dávila, Dora María Téllez, Ana Margarita Vijil, and Suyén Barahona, members of the Unión Democrática Renovadora (Unamos), formerly the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), spent more than 160 days in isolation cells in “el nuevo Chipote ”, Where they are being held together with 35 other political prisoners who were captured during the electoral process in Nicaragua.
“The torture regime through systematic isolation, through prolonged solitary confinement, is always maintained,” denounced Ana Lucía Álvarez, Tamara’s sister and Ana Margarita’s niece.
While the other prisoners of conscience share cells with other comrades, the four leaders of Unamos are the only political prisoners who are in a condition of permanent isolation and solitary confinement.
Dávila has been in a completely sealed solitary confinement cell for more than five months, where she does not have access to reading material, current news or other activities that link her to the outside world.
“Tamara’s situation is particularly worrying, because, in addition to being isolated and incommunicado, she is in an isolation and punishment cell, which is a cell that is bolted,” explained her sister.
Vijil is alone in a barred cell, but even so, “she is not allowed to speak or have eye contact with other people.”
Peltier Barahona, Suyén Barahona’s brother, pointed out that the activist “is living a sentence,” and that they are concerned about her physical and emotional health.
Torture and cruelty
National and international human rights defenders point out that these cases constitute acts of “aggravated torture”.
The president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), Vilma Núñez de Escorcia, warned that the situation of torture of the four political prisoners “is indescribable”, since it exceeds the national and international norms that govern the treatment that should exist in a prison regime.
Paulo Abrão, former executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), affirmed that, in the case of the four activists, the State of Nicaragua violates the minimum rules of the Mandela principles, which establish that “all inmates must be treated with respect and dignity ”.
“It is clear that the (Daniel) Ortega and (Rosario) Murillo regime is taking measures of excessive cruelty, of revenge, against these four women,” declared Bianca Jagger, founder and president of the Bianca Jagger Foundation for the Defense of Rights. Humans.
In addition to remaining in cells of total confinement, the opposition women have been victims of other acts of torture, such as the deprivation of food, threats, and constant interrogation.
“The interrogations have persisted, and their interrogators are the only contact they have with another human being,” Álvarez said.
The regime’s repression and torture of the four political activists also extends to their families.
“Sometimes they ask about certain friends, about certain relatives, and that also represents aggression, because they are indirect forms of threat, where they remain in a state of alert and concern for their loved ones,” added Tamara’s sister.
Deprived of seeing their little children
For Dávila and Barahona, the regime has prevented the elementary right to communicate with their children. Barahona is the mother of a four-year-old boy whom she has not seen since she was arrested. “The fact that they are depriving her of raising her child, which is a right that she has as a mother, is really cruel,” denounced her brother.
Dávila’s five-year-old daughter, who was with her at the time of her arrest, constantly asks about her mother. “The State is depriving Tamara not only of having a relationship with her daughter, but also her daughter of having a relationship with her mother,” said Ana Lucía.
Núñez warned that this deprivation, in addition to being an act of torture for them as mothers, constitutes a violation of the norms that govern the Rights of the Child at the national and international level.
“Where is that commitment that they assumed when signing the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” criticized the human rights defender to the Government of Nicaragua.
An act of revenge by Ortega and Murillo
Family members and activists of DD. HH attributed these acts of torture to a “political revenge” of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, for the challenge that the formerly called MRS has represented.
Téllez is a former Sandinista guerrilla who in 1995, disenchanted with the authoritarian direction and caudillismo of the FSLN, founded the MRS together with the writer Sergio Ramírez and other Sandinista dissidents. In addition, it has been an open criticism of the arbitrariness and abuses of the Ortega government.
Vijil is an activist, feminist, and human rights defender in Nicaragua. She was president of the MRS between 2012 and 2017, and in 2018 she was actively involved in the fight for democracy in Nicaragua.
Dávila, 41, participated in the 2018 anti-government protests. In 2020, she was elected as a member of the Political Council of the opposition Blue and White National Unit (UNAB), and also as a member of the Board of the National Coalition.
Barahona is a long-time political activist, feminist and current president of the Unamos Movement. In 2015, together with the MRS, he denounced the electoral farce of Ortega and Murillo.
“We know about the political motivation, especially against these women, who represent the struggle of the historic resistance of the Sandinista revolutionary movement,” Abrão said in an interview with Confidencial Radio.
Núñez agreed with Abrão, and stressed that the cruelty of the regime “is part of the revenge of those who have known how to maintain the principles of the revolution.”
International call
National and international human rights organizations have demanded an end to the aggravated torture and the immediate release of the four political prisoners, as well as the rest of the prisoners of conscience.
“I want to make a call before finishing, to demand the cessation of torture and isolation in prison, of women political prisoners,” said Commissioner Antonia Urrejola, during the presentation of the report “Dictatorship and repression in Nicaragua: Fight against impunity”, on November 18.
“I want to denounce the atrocities that are being committed against these four women and against all political prisoners in Nicaragua. I ask the international community to support us in freeing all the political prisoners who are suffering, ”demanded Jagger.
Despite spending more than 160 days under a torture regime, Tamara, Ana Margarita, Suyén and Dora María remain firm and strong, their relatives assured.
Watch the video version of this report on the Esta Semana program, this Sunday, November 21 through our video channel on YouTube.
