The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CourtIDH) ordered the immediate release of nine political prisoners in Nicaragua, identified as opponents of the Government of Daniel Ortega, and that while this is happening, take measures to guarantee their integrity and their lives.
In a resolution of provisional measures published this Monday, the Inter-American Court requires the Nicaraguan State “to proceed with the immediate release” of the president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise, Michael Edwing Healy Lacayo, and the vice president of that organization, Álvaro Javier Vargas Duarte. , as well as peasant leaders Medardo Mairena Sequeira and Pedro Joaquín Mena Amador.
The list is completed by Jaime José Arellano Arana, Miguel Ángel Mendoza Urbina, Mauricio José Díaz Dávila, Max Isaac Jerez Meza and Edgar Francisco Parrales.
“The arrests and criminal proceedings initiated are part of a context of harassment of those who demonstrate in opposition to the policies of the current Nicaraguan government, which has been exacerbated due to the elections that took place in November 2021,” he says. the resolution.
Demand information from inmates
The Inter-American Court also ordered the State to “proceed to unequivocally inform his relatives and trusted lawyers about his place of detention, to facilitate his immediate contact with relatives and lawyers, at least once a week, and to guarantee immediate access to health services and medicines for the beneficiaries”.
The judges also required the State to “immediately adopt the necessary measures to effectively protect the life, integrity and freedom” of the beneficiaries of the measures and their families in Nicaragua.
This resolution is an extension of others that the Inter-American Court has been issuing in recent months in favor of imprisoned opponents in Nicaragua who remain in prison.
Other resolutions
Among the beneficiaries of the measures issued months ago are the presidential candidate Cristiana María Chamorro Barrios, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios, Walter Antonio Gómez Silva, Marcos Antonio Fletes Casco, Pedro Salvador Vásquez, Arturo José Cruz Sequeira and Luis Alberto Rivas Anduray.
In addition, Miguel de los Ángeles Mora Barberena, Dora María Téllez Arguello, Ana Margarita Vijil Gurdián, Suyen Barahona Cuán, Jorge Hugo Torres Jiménez, Víctor Hugo Tinoco Fonseca and José Bernard Pallais Arana.
The rest are Juan Sebastián Chamorro García and Félix Maradiaga, both presidential candidates, as well as José Adán Aguerri Chamorro, Violeta Mercedes Granera Padill, Daisy Tamara Dávila Rivas, Lesther Lenin Alemán Alfaro and Freddy Alberto Navas López.
The deprivation of liberty for political reasons, pointed out by humanitarian organizations, was accentuated in 2018, when Nicaraguans came out en masse to protest against Ortega, and were reduced with armed attacks.
