The leaders of the Renovating Democratic Union (Unamos) celebrate this Thursday, October 13, 16 months of being imprisoned in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), known as “El Chipote”, a prison where political prisoners receive torture, according to complaints from their relatives and human rights organizations.
On June 13, 2021, the Sandinista regime launched a hunt against its former “comrades” and ordered the arrest of the guerrilla commander Dora María Téllez; the former president of Unamos, Ana Margarita Vijil; the former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Víctor Hugo Tinoco; retired general Hugo Torres Jiménez; and the president of Unamos, Suyen Barahona. Torres died while he was a political prisoner of the dictatorship.
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At the end of August and beginning of September, the dictatorship presented the political prisoners to its propaganda media. They felt thin and aged, but firmly before their captors.
The dictatorship ordered the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) to open criminal proceedings against the six opposition leaders and sent them to political trial where they were found guilty of the alleged crime of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity.”
Tinoco was sentenced to 13 years in prison; Ana Margarita Vijil was sentenced to 10 years in prison and Tamara Dávila, Dora María Téllez and Suyen Barahona 8 years each.
So they were arrested
The day that the sanctioned police detention arbitrarily raided the home of former Sandinista guerrilla Dora María Téllez and arrested her along with Ana Margarita Vijil. About three hours before the raid, at least two police and motorized patrols surrounded the former combatant’s home, while a drone flew over the property.
Hours later, the president of Unamos, Suyen Barahona, was arrested at her home in Managua. “These actions against the leadership of Unamos are part of the repressive escalation of Ortega, against the entire democratic opposition,” denounced the directive of that political group.
Around 9:00 at night, Víctor Hugo Tinoco was kidnapped by civilians who were traveling in a Hilux truck, in the vicinity of Galerías Santo Domingo, municipality of Managua. Hours before, at about six in the afternoon, his family warned that a police patrol was holding him, but they let him go; however, the regime’s operators carried out his intention some time later.
A few hours later, Hugo Torres Jiménez was also arrested, who died after 244 days in detention and for whom there is no official version of his death. International, political and human rights organizations have demanded an exhaustive investigation to find out the conditions of his death.
To the leaders of Unamos, now political prisoners, he was accused of violating Law 1055 for allegedly “undermining the sovereignty of Nicaragua” and for “inciting foreign interference in internal affairs and requesting military interventions,” the Police reported in various press releases. Like the rest of opponents who have been imprisoned under the so-called “Sovereignty Law.”
