The former presidential candidate, Cristiana Chamorro, after hearing the guilty verdict by the Ortega justice system, told Judge Luden Martín Quiroz, of the Ninth Criminal District Court of Managua, “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 for Public Liberties, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, and my mother, former president Violeta Barrios, “he said.
He assured that the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation (FVBCh) had the purpose of training young journalists and that international organizations sent donations because they trusted in the proper management of the funds. “You are criminalizing me for training journalists and justice is being used not to tell the truth. If I have been the channel to receive these donations and train journalists, it is because I am an honest person. I have never taken money from the Foundation for my own benefit because I was educated with great values and I have not had the need to do so, ”she said.
Chamorro was found guilty this Friday of the alleged crimes of money laundering -five years- and improper appropriation and retention-three years-, adding eight years in prison, and a fine equivalent to three times the value of the money allegedly laundered. In the case of the Foundation, two former employees, Walter Gómez and Marcos Fletes, were also accused, for whom they requested 13 years in prison; Cristiana’s personal driver, Pedro Vásquez, for whom they ask for seven years and the former vice president of the FVBCh Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, whose requested sentence is nine years.
PJCHB swore before God, the country and his family: “I have not committed any crime”
Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios pronounced himself under oath before God and the country and told Judge Luden Martín Quiroz ‘you represent the country’. He swore before the memory of his father, the national hero Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, his mother – former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro – his wife and his four children. “I have not committed any crime. I am not guilty of what they are accusing me of, ”he said, according to the defenses.
He said that he had never taken money from the Foundation or misappropriated anything that did not belong to him. That the only thing he did for ten years was manage a family patrimony (the Farallón four-apartment condominium in San Juan del Sur) in which he and each of his brothers contributed a part of the funds necessary for the maintenance of the property.
He also said that if anyone could blame him for misusing that money, it would be his brothers who deposited their money in that account, “but I have a clear conscience that I did the right things,” he stressed.
The sentence requested against Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios by the Prosecutor’s Office is divided into six years for the crime of appropriation and improper retention plus a fine of 300 days and three years for abusive management plus disqualification from practicing the profession for the same period; In total, they are nine years in prison.
For their part, Walter and Marcos affirmed that they did not commit any crime, that they are honest people and that the only thing they did was practice their profession. “I’m innocent. I thank God for the wife and children he gave me, because it is for them that I would not do anything wrong. In my 30 years of working in different institutions I have never committed a crime, “said Gómez, according to his wife, María Consuelo Céspedes.
The Prosecutor’s Office requested 13 years in prison for both former workers: two years for ideological falsification, two for abusive actions, plus disqualification from practicing the profession for the same period. For misappropriation, the Prosecutor’s Office requested an aggravated sentence of four years plus a 300-day fine, and for money laundering, five years in prison, plus a fine of three times the value of the money allegedly laundered. This despite the fact that according to the defenses, during seven days of trial, the Prosecutor’s Office failed to prove any of the crimes charged to the defendants.
The driver Pedro Vásquez expressed before the court that he is innocent, that “his hands have never been stained from doing illegal things,” said his wife, Norma Vega, who is very concerned about his health, since in the hearings she noticed him weak . “He’s dizzy, he’s lost about 40 pounds, he has bruises on his arms and his blood pressure is up,” she says.
nine months in jail
“My fear is that he could have a stroke, or cardiac arrest,” said Vega, who asked that they allow him to serve his sentence under the figure of house arrest. Vásquez is convicted of being a necessary cooperator for money laundering. They ask for seven years in prison, plus a fine of three times the value of the allegedly laundered money.
Cristiana Chamorro has been under house arrest since June 2, 2021 and Pedro Joaquín has been held in the Judicial Assistance Directorate (DAJ), El Chipote, -where the trial was also held- since the 25th of that same month. Both account for about nine months as political prisoners of the regime.
Walter Gómez and Marcos Fletes were the first to be captured by the Ortega regime, inaugurating a political hunt that included seven presidential candidates, civic and student leaders, human rights defenders, and peasants.
Like the rest of the political trials, the lawyers barely managed to speak with their clients for three minutes at each hearing. Likewise, there were repeated violations of the Constitution and the Code of Criminal Procedure, the defenses pointed out. They added that the Foundation’s funds were never proven to be illicit. “You can not launder money, but there is dirty money,” said the defense of political prisoners.
The Prosecutor’s Office presented 20 police officers, two Migob workers and nine civilians as witnesses. The latter affirmed that their relationship with the FVBCh was totally honest, transparent and correct. While in the case of the police officers, the contradictions, gaps and lack of knowledge about the investigations of the case were evident.
This Thursday, the Public Ministry presented as a witness Captain Jairo Ramírez Carrión, an expert from the National Police’s Directorate of Economic Investigations (DIE), responsible for prepare the equity financial analysis sOpen the case of the Foundation, in which rests the accusation against the prisoners of conscience.
However, the 99-page document indicates from the first page that it is a “preliminary report”; fact that was ratified by the same expert when he was consulted by the defense attorneys. Two workers from the Ministry of the Interior also presented contradictory reports about the alleged inconsistencies in the Foundation. Franya Urey Blandón, head of Migob’s Directorate for Registration and Control of Associations, acknowledged that she “was unaware” of the “specific reasons” for the accusations against political prisoners.
