Judge Roberto Zuniga, Originally from the municipality of Puerto Morazán-Tonalá, in the department of Chinandega, he abandoned his post and decided to go into exile in the United States with his wife and three children, informed the lawyer Yader Morazan through his Twitter account.
“While some insecure people have to show their fidelity by worshiping (Daniel) Ortega and his family project, in a parallel reality, Judge Roberto Zúñiga (…) leaves office and the country to go out on sidewalks with his whole family,” he reported. specialist in the administration of justice.
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Although the causes of Zúñiga’s decision to leave Nicaragua in search of political asylum are unknown, it was learned that 15 days ago he left irregularly for Honduras and boarded a plane bound for Miami.
No one is safe in the Judiciary
In interview with Article 66, Yader Morazán emphasized that to this day no one is safe in the Judiciary. “In 2010, Carlos Tinoco, general secretary of the unions at the national level, said that it was easier to fire a priest than to fire a worker from the Judiciary, because there was a procedure that was stipulated in the Judicial Career Law that established that the decision — to fire a judge — had to be made by four magistrates.”
“Currently they are fired without any procedure, there are even lists with names and surnames of people who have been fired without any legal process, even though they supported —the Ortega regime— in the 2018 repression (…) In a nutshell they were bitten for the snake they themselves protected,” he added.
On the other hand, Morazán emphasized the “competition” that exists between the workers of the Judiciary to show loyalty to the Ortega dictatorship. “You may have had professional merits, but if there is a person who has more political commitment – partisan, they may have greater possibilities than those who really have merits.”
In addition, he emphasized that no one is safe in their public positions, because they have to continually show their loyalty to Ortega. “Now what matters to a worker in the Judiciary is what he is doing for Ortega.”
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The lawyer —also exiled in the US— concluded that Roberto Zúñiga is not the first worker in the Judiciary to be “pressured” by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and decide to leave Nicaragua to protect his life.
“This is something that has been happening, what happens is that not all cases are people who appear publicly, many remain anonymous for fear of reprisals against their relatives. The pressures that the judges, magistrates, secretaries and all the staff are receiving are very strong, and not everyone can withstand it », he affirmed.
More Judges Sanctioned
The decision of many judges to go into exile has come after pressure from the United States government, which has sanctioned several judges who have been loyal to the Ortega government.
On Friday, July 15, the United States Department of State It added 23 Sandinista operators, including judges and prosecutors, in charge of accusing and convicting political prisoners of the Daniel Ortega dictatorship.
The Joe Biden administration decided to apply the Enhanced Engagement Act between the United States and the Northern Triangle, better known as the “Engel List”, to the operators of the Ortega-Murillo regime for “undermining democratic processes or institutions by exercising discretion proceedings to present false charges in order to imprison opponents of the regime in the run-up to the national elections”.
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Among the extensive list of those sanctioned are Yubelca del Carmen Pérez Alvarado, Carlos Rafael Espinoza Castilla, Jorge Luis Arias Jarquín, Martha Ileana Morales Mendoza, Marling de Jesús Castro Rodríguez and Andrea del Carmen Salas, prosecutors of the Public Ministry in Managua; all accused of presenting false charges against opposition leaders prior to the 2021 presidential elections.
Despite the sanctions, the judges and prosecutors at Ortega’s service continue to show loyalty to him and continue to prosecute and sentence dozens of political prisoners, which to date number more than 190.
