The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has imprisoned 27 Nicaraguans so far in November whom they keep isolated and without access to visits from their relatives, reported the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners.
This mechanism made up of more than 10 organizations of victims, relatives of victims and human rights defenders, indicated to CONFIDENTIAL that from November 1 to 23, 48 people were arrested, of which 17 were released, while 21 men and 6 women remain incarcerated.
They detail that the 27 people who remain imprisoned are originally from Río San Juan (11), Managua (5), Masaya (4), Estelí (3), Chinandega (2), Nueva Segovia (1) and Carazo (1).
In addition, they mention that 17 of the 27 incarcerated are part of some organization or political party; and 10 are identified as activists, analysts, ex-entrenched and released political prisoners.
The Mechanism indicates that nine of those arrested are in municipal preventive prisons, five in the districts of Managua, one person in El Chipote and one under the house-by-prison regime. In ten of the cases, independent monitoring has failed to confirm the location of where the detainees are incarcerated.
Four more cases reported on social networks have not yet been confirmed by this organization.
Criminalization through Sovereignty and Cybercrime law
They denounce that the 13 people who have already been accused are accused of allegedly violating the Sovereignty and Cybercrime laws, laws that are part of the machinery of repressive laws that the Ortega regime approved in the National Assembly between October 2020 and February 2021.
The independent registry stresses that, for now, at the request of the majority of the relatives of the 27 incarcerated people, they will not give the list of names of the victims of this new wave of arrests.
However, some relatives of people detained in recent weeks have publicly denounced the arrests of their relatives, as happened in the case of the political analyst and former diplomat Edgar Parrales, 79, who was arrested on November 22 and is currently in the cells of El Chipote, in Managua.
On the morning of this Thursday, November 25, the arrest of 62-year-old Eveling Pinto, captured on November 6 at his home in Managua, was also made public. The woman is a recognized human rights defender and a cancer survivor. On social media, her relatives reported that they have not been able to see her since her arrest and that they are unaware of her health status, which worries them because she suffers from hypertension and chronic kidney failure.
The Blue and White National Unity (UNAB) and the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy (ACJD) indicated, in an interview with CONFIDENTIAL, that among the people arrested in November and who are still incarcerated are 16 of its members.
The lawyer Juan Diego Barberena, a member of the Political Council of UNAB, affirms that 10 members of the organization are imprisoned, in police districts of the capital and in the preventive cells of the departmental heads of the National Police.
Barberena affirms that the members of the UNAB “have not received a visit” from their relatives or from their lawyers, despite the fact that they have already served more than 48 hours in detention.
Absolute defenselessness
The UNAB member points out that the incarcerated are in a “state of absolute defenselessness”, since, after a “flagrant illegal detention” and “more than 48 since that detention”, they are not placed under the order of a judge and personal exhibition appeals that are filed to “safeguard their constitutional rights and physical integrity are not accepted.”
The lawyer details that five of the 10 imprisoned by the UNAB have already been accused of alleged “undermining the peace and spreading false news, through communication technologies, in accordance with article 30 of the Cybercrime Law.”
It denounces that these accusations were made outside the time established by law, since preliminary hearings have been held after seven days, others in more, of the arrests.
It emphasizes that these 10 people, even those who were already accused, did not receive an extension of judicial detention, as has happened in other cases, which in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code apply judicial detention of up to 90 days, which, points out, confirms that these are illegal detentions.
The lawyer mentions that the relatives of the detained persons have indicated that, although they are not given access to visits, they are allowed “to deliver food; the three meal times, including those in the Managua districts, as well as clothing and personal hygiene utensils ”.
Arrest of opponents of the ACJD
Dr. Asunción Moreno, a member of the Civic Alliance, also denounced that among those imprisoned in November are six of the leaders of that organization, warning that the Ortega regime “has intensified” the repression against municipal and departmental leaderships.
“Since November 6, prior to the day of the electoral farce, the leaderships of the directors of the Civic Alliance of the different departments and municipalities have been besieged, persecuted and to date we have six leaders, directors of our alliance, kidnapped or detained by authorities of the National Police ”, indicated Moreno in an interview with the program Tonight.
He noted that four of the homes of the jailed opponents were searched “without a warrant.”
The ACJD denounced, through its social networks, that three of its six jailed members are: Nidia Barbosa Castillo and Edder Muñoz Centeno, from Masaya; and Armando Robles, from Morrito, Río San Juan.
In addition, they indicated CONFIDENTIAL that none of the detainees has been able to receive visits from their families and lawyers, despite the fact that most of them have already been incarcerated for more than 10 days. The members of both organizations clarify that the names of the other three incarcerated have not been disclosed at the request of the families.
It is publicly known that of the six incarcerated by the ACJD, only Nidia Barbosa Castillo, arrested on November 6, has been charged for allegedly violating the Cybercrime Law.
The Civic Alliance denounced, during this week, that Barbosa Castillo is admitted to a hospital in Masaya, with hypertension and heart disease problems, after being taken – last Saturday – to a preliminary hearing.
The doctor affirms that the organization and family members are “concerned” about the physical integrity of the incarcerated, because “we already know that the dictatorship has been practicing torture in the cells, has been systematically carrying out illegal and arbitrary detentions, and opening illegal trials in where the rights and guarantees are not guaranteed in these processes ”.
CXL denounces persecution and arbitrary detentions
The Citizens for Freedom (CXL) party, which was stripped of its legal status last August by the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) of the Ortega regime, has also denounced that, since last October 30, there has been a whole “persecution” against their territorial leaders of the department of Río San Juan.
The opponents denounced that, during November, Moisés Salinas, CXL councilor in El Almendro; Araldo Manzanarez, local leader of the party; Esteban Paniagua Espinoza and Cándido Sánchez López, treasurer and head of the political organization in San Carlos, respectively.
The three organizations have demanded the release of all political prisoners who, after the new arrests, now number more than 170 in the different jails of the country.
