The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo sentenced the presidential candidate Cristiana Chamorro to eight years in prison for the alleged crimes of money laundering, goods and assets, ideological falsehood, appropriation and improper retention. These crimes would have been committed through the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation (FVBCH), an organization of which she was president.
Cristiana was convicted along with her brother Pedro Joaquín; Pedro Vásquez, her driver; Walter Gómez, administrator and Marco Fletes, the financier, the last three were workers of the defunct Foundation that closed due to the imposition of the regime to register under the Foreign Agents Law, a legal tool of Ortega and Murillo to control and limit financing to Nicaraguan non-governmental organizations. Pedro Joaquín was sentenced to nine years, seven for Vázquez; 14 years for Gómez and Fletes.
According to the accusation of the Prosecutor’s Office, at the service of the dictatorship, the daughter of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro used the organization to “finance organizations and individuals, so that they would destabilize the economic development of the country, spreading false news against the Government of Nicaragua”.
Related news: Regime convicts Cristiana Chamorro and former FVBCH workers. Prosecutor asks between seven and thirteen years in prison
During the trial, which according to defense attorneys was plagued by irregularities and nullities, paraded a series of witnesses such as policemen and journalists. The accusation was based on the support that the organization provided for several years to the independent media.
The case against the Foundation affects independent media such as Radio Voz, Radio Darío, Despacho 505, Actualidad con Dino Andino, NotiMat, Radio TV Merced and Radio Stereo Romance, among others. All of them supposedly had benefited from the “Nicaragua Media Program” that the FVBCH executed with Nicaraguan journalists.
The program consisted, according to the accusation of the regime’s justice, in the delivery of financing for the purchase of equipment, technical training and subsequent operation of the media.
According to the document, after receiving the disbursement for equipment, training and operation, the media received from the Foundation “an agenda to attack the Government and the Army… to destabilize the country’s economic development.”
In the accusatory libel, Marco Fletes and Walter Gómez, accountant and administrator respectively, are accused of asking third parties to cash the Foundation’s checks.
The judicial process began on March 3 and ended on Friday, the 11th, and was held at the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, in Managua, known as “El Nuevo Chipote”, where more than 30 hostages of conscience are also being held.
Chamorro was the opposition figure most likely to win the presidential elections on November 7, in which Ortega was re-elected for his fifth term, fourth in a row and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with his main contenders in prison. .
