Brian Nichols, United States Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, considered that Cristiana Chamorro, her brother, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro and three former employees of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation (FVBCh) found guilty on “unfounded charges,” “suffered a terrible injustice at the hands of Ortega-Murillo.”
“The true objective of the regime is the freedoms of Nicaraguans, which is why they have attacked those who have always defended them,” he said through his Twitter account. For its part, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), described the trial against the Foundation as a “judicial farce”, where “illegalities prevailed”.
Cristiana & Pedro J. Chamorro, and their colleagues convicted of baseless charges, suffered a terrible injustice at the hands of Ortega-Murillo. The true objective of the regime is the freedoms of Nicaraguans, which is why they have attacked those who have always defended them.
— Brian A. Nichols (@WHAAsstSecty) March 12, 2022
“After seven days of torture in El Chipote, the spurious Judiciary declared guilty former executives and former employees of the Fundación for crimes they did not commit. We demand that they be released immediately, ”Cenidh demanded, through his Twitter account.
This Friday night, after seven days of hearings, three of them marathon, Judge Luden Martín Quiroz, of the Ninth Criminal District Court of Managua, found the former presidential candidate, Cristiana Chamorro, guilty of the alleged crimes of money laundering. money -five years- and misappropriation and retention -three years-, adding eight years in prison, and a fine equivalent to three times the value of the money allegedly laundered.
Two former FVBCh workers, Walter Gómez and Marcos Fletes, were also found guilty in the same case, for whom they requested 13 years in prison for each; Cristiana’s personal driver, Pedro Vásquez, for whom they ask for seven years and the former vice president of the FVBCh and brother of Cristiana, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, whose requested sentence is nine years.
Gómez and Fletes were accused of four crimes: ideological falsification; abusive management; appropriation and money laundering, plus a fine of three times the value of the money allegedly laundered. Vásquez is accused of being a necessary cooperator for money laundering. In addition to the seven years requested by the Prosecutor’s Office, they ask for a fine of three times the value of the allegedly laundered money.
In the case of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios, the Prosecutor’s Office declared him responsible for two alleged crimes: improper appropriation and retention, and abusive management, in addition to a 300-day fine. In total, they are nine years in prison.
Cristiana Chamorro expressed before the judicial Luden Martín Quiroz: “you are violating my right to freedom of expression, which my father defended so much and I am obliged to continue defending that legacy left by my father, the Martyr of Public Liberties. , Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, and my mother, former president Violeta Barrios,” he said.
The defenses of those involved have indicated that the Prosecutor’s Office was unable to prove any of the crimes imputed to the defendants, including, they did not even demonstrate that the money with which the Foundation operated came from illicit activities, a conditioning factor to indicate that it is of “dirty” money. At all times the trial was plagued by constitutional violations and the Code of Criminal Procedure.
