The political prisoner and presidential candidate, Felix Maradiagawould have started a hunger strike on June 21 in the El Chipote prison, where he has been held for more than a year in subhuman conditions, according to his wife, Bertha Valle, to whom the prisoner of conscience sent that message during the last family visit, which occurred on June 10.
“On the last visit, Félix talked about going on a hunger strike,” Valle warned. “I had not wanted to publish anything because I needed to understand what was happening, but twenty-one days have passed and there is no communication, there is no way of knowing anything, he is incommunicado… I cannot be sure if he started the strike Hungry or not, what I can say is that, due to the level of solitary confinement there is, I am raising my voice,” he added.
Valle, however, decided to publish her husband’s message “so that the State of Nicaragua can tell me, what is happening inside Chipote?”
“The situation my husband (Félix) is in is so desperate that he has made the decision to start that strike… He demands the cessation of solitary confinement, because they are not even allowed to speak with their cellmate, the cessation of solitary confinement and the solitary confinement in which they hold women political prisoners, she particularly mentioned the case of Tamara Dávila who has been in a completely bolted cell for a year, who is weighing 96 pounds and who does not even have the possibility of receiving sun”, Valley continued.
Valle also commented that before the last family visit, Félix was taken to the prison clinic in an emergency due to bradycardia, a heart rate slower than normal, and showed a spoken portrait of her husband in which the abrupt weight loss he has suffered during his time in prison.
“A legitimate defense mechanism”
For the president of Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), Vilma Núñez, the hunger strike is “a legitimate defense mechanism” against so much “cruelty” that political prisoners are suffering. In the case of Félix “there is no certainty” and that represents “one more anguish for Bertha, for not knowing what happened?” Núñez said.
The human rights defender also recalled the case of the lawyer and political prisoner, Manuel Urbina Lara, who last May began a hunger strike in the Waswalí prison, Matagalpa. He protests that the regime dissolved by beating the inmates and transferring the political prisoner to the La Modelo prison in Tipitapa.
Meanwhile, Victoria Cárdenas, wife of another political prisoner and presidential candidate, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, expressed her solidarity with the situation of Félix Maradiaga and all prisoners of conscience and urged Nicaraguan citizens and the international community to continue demanding his immediate release.
“This pain and anguish that I carry on my back and that I share with all the relatives of prisoners cannot be compared with anything I have experienced before. I have suffered duels from loved ones, I have experienced physical separations from family and friends, but this permanent, deep pain, the uncertainty of not knowing how my husband is or when this nightmare will end, I do not know how to cope with it with such arbitrariness, “said Cárdenas.
For the regional director of Amnesty International, Erika Guevara Rosas, what Nicaragua is experiencing is one of the “worst crises” that the world faces in terms of human rights.
Guevara pointed out that “it must continue to be emphasized that people imprisoned for political reasons have been detained for activities in defense of human rights through different platforms and sectors,” since “it is not enough” to campaign for their release.
