The Ortega regime continues to apply acts of torture against political prisoners, expressed through beatings, threats from prison inmates, psychological attacks, incommunicado detention with their families for long periods of time or unjustified suspension of visits, revealed the sixth report of the Nicaraguan Observatory against Torture, from the Nicaraguan Never Again Human Rights Collective.
During three years of systematizing testimonies, statements and complaints from family members of people deprived of liberty, both public and private, the Collective counted 138 victims of “these crimes, 116 of whom are men and 22 women, including a trans woman.”
The work of defenders from exile made it possible to identify “at least 27 police centers, four penitentiary centers and nine clandestine or irregular centers where these acts of torture have been committed.”
“The collected cases express a temporality of permanent torture in the country, with documented events from April 2018 to March 2022”, defenders denounced during the presentation of the document, held this Friday in Costa Rica.
From December 2021 to March 2022, the Collective received information on ten cases of political prisoners who have suffered ill-treatment in four penitentiary centers, including the prison of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), El Chipote. “All people agree on a continuous lack of protection of their right to health, since, despite presenting different symptoms, they are not attended by the custodians, nor do they receive the required medical treatment,” warns the agency.
The constant and accelerated deterioration of the health of prisoners of conscience persists, reporting considerable weight loss, from 15 to 60 pounds, muscle pain, stomach problems due to poor nutrition and lack of access to drinking water, febrile and diarrheal symptoms , dizziness and vomiting. The agency warned that the lack of medical attention and the inhuman conditions of detention have caused that in four of the ten registered cases, people have presented uncontrolled blood pressure, headaches and general malaise.
Wendy Flores, founding member of the Collective, explained that during the organization’s three years of work, they have documented 619 cases of human rights violations, which account for the different forms of repression that continue to be committed in Nicaragua, in addition to the ” different perpetrators who have been identified by the victims of the cases: parastatal forces, police, prosecutors, the Judiciary and the Public Ministry that have participated in conspiracy to allow and perpetuate repression in our country, “he said.
Brutal beatings in penal centers
The human rights organization recorded a beating against a prisoner of conscience in the “Jorge Navarro” Penitentiary Center and another in the Chontales prison.
“The MCU political prisoner was brutally beaten on December 23, 2021, after a family visit, when he was placed in a solitary room, stripped naked and forced to defecate under threat of further beatings,” the report reads. The relatives of this political prisoner had previously complained about the touching and improper treatment of one of his sisters.
The other case corresponded to the political prisoner with the initials LRP who was beaten after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ruled on his situation. The guards told him that they were in charge inside the prison. “This same political prisoner has presented a deterioration in his mental health, referring to his relatives that he already forgets things and sometimes speaks incoherencies, affectations that have been derived from more than 10 months in absolute isolation, blows, threats and other torture practices,” he indicates. the organism.
The abuses also extend to the relatives of prisoners of conscience, who are victims of treatment different from that of common criminals. In the prisons, they separate them from the lines, make them wait for several hours, losing visiting time, and even verbally assaulting them by calling them “puchitos” and accusing them of leaving drugs at the penitentiary. “At least three family members reported sexual abuse by the officials,” the study indicates.
The Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners registers 181 prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua, of these, 14 are women who have also been subjected to cruel treatment. Most of these are defenders, activists, members of feminist movements and opponents of the Government.
