After 45 days, the Daniel Ortega regime agreed to allow political prisoners – captured between June and November 2021 – to receive, in groups, a visit from their relatives on New Year’s Eve, after they were denied this right during the Christmas celebrations.
The visits were made from Thursday, December 30 and concluded this Sunday, January 2, 2022. As confirmed by several relatives to CONFIDENTIAL, the meeting with the political prisoners lasted approximately one hour and 30 minutes and as happened in the past three visits, the relatives were thoroughly searched, photographed and watched.
The family of the political prisoner, Medardo Mairena, who was a candidate for the presidency, denounced that since his arrest he lost about 53 pounds and that the interrogations as a form of torture continue. In addition, he is still disconnected from the news.
“They don’t have access to any kind of news. He is grateful for the affection of all those people who continue to care for him and all the political prisoners. He sends you greetings and continues to pray for the freedom of our beloved Nicaragua ”, explained his family through his Twitter account.
On the Facebook page of the Nicaraguan Peasant Movement, the relatives of Pedro Mena, a peasant leader arrested on July 5, 2021, assured that he also continues to lose weight. He and Mairena have suffered different health problems during their time in prison.
The visit was authorized a day before
Félix Maradiaga’s family was able to see him on December 31. The day before, they received a call where they were informed about the authorization to see him. As described by his wife Bertha Valle, the conditions in which they find themselves have not changed. Family members are checked before entering and are not allowed to enter with a telephone or any object.
“On this occasion, something we could see was that the official media took photographs of the relatives who had come to the visits. It is the first time they do it and well again it is an invasion of privacy and they expose people, “said Valle, who added that during the confinement, her husband lost about 50 pounds.
He also explained that the interrogations continue; in the case of Maradiaga, he is in the company of another prisoner, but does not have access to a blanket.
“The prisoners have told us that right now that the temperatures are dropping, it makes them very cold. In addition, with the weight loss, they are obviously more susceptible to the cold and it has been impossible to put the blanket in. My sister-in-law tried to make a request to the police officers who were there and was denied. So he doesn’t have anything to cover himself with either, ”Valle explained.
Inmates cannot even use the uniforms that they use on visiting days as a blanket because after they are finished they take them off and put on other clothes, Valle explained.
Maradiaga took advantage of the visit to ask that he be allowed to exercise his religious freedom and the entry of a Bible or counseling from a priest. “He insists that please do everything in your power to be able to give him a Bible, it is the only thing he asks for, besides his freedom,” said the wife.
Judge ordered periodic visits, but they do not comply
Suyén Barahona’s family members denounced that although the judge handling the case ordered last September that she be allowed weekly visits, the authorities have not complied. In addition, she is one of the four areas of consciousness – Dora María Téllez, Ana Margarita Vijil and Tamara Dávila – that is isolated.
“The judge had approved that weekly visits be allowed, so we hope that what the judge indicated in her minutes will be fulfilled. We also ask that the isolation of these four people who have been in isolation for six months cease, that they improve their diet and that they allow us to bring them blankets so that they can better withstand the cold of these months, “said a relative from Barahona.
As they described, in the more than 200 days that Suyén has been in prison, who is from the Unión Democrática Renovadora (Unamos), has lost about 30 pounds. They estimate that she has been forced to approximately 260 interrogations, without the presence of a lawyer.
After each visit they have seen a pattern that worries them and that is that in the week after the visits the prisoners do not receive food, only water, according to the Barahona relative.
“Generally the week before the visit they allow us to leave them yogurt or some type of milk such as EnsureBut the week after they only allow water and we see that reflected, because she has lost more than 30 pounds and the same goes for the rest of the political prisoners, ”explained the relative.
Another pattern they have noticed is that the personal belongings they carry such as shampoo and toilet paper run out very quickly because two or three days after they deliver it, the officers ask for more.
Family members: They are resisting given the extreme conditions
The family of political prisoner Juan Sebastián Chamorro was also able to see him. According to his wife Victoria Cárdenas, his conditions have not changed, he continues to lose weight, but remains strong physically, emotionally and spiritually.
“Although they are resisting, under all those conditions that violate their human rights. My message that I would like to convey is that the release must be urgent, immediate, without conditions and with guarantees, because these innocent people are at risk every hour that they are in that cell, ”he told CONFIDENTIAL.
During the visit, the family was only able to enter a few cookies. Chamorro asked them to bring him a larger towel because they don’t have bedspreads to withstand the cold. The constant interrogations continue and he still has little access to the hours of sunshine.
He indicated that at the time of entering the relatives “they are registered incorrectly”, especially the women who must lift their bra to verify that they are not wearing anything. They are not allowed any accessories such as: watches and even tails to hold their hair. And during the visit there is always a person nearby.
Ortega closed 2021 with 170 political prisoners
Nicaragua closed 2021 with 170 political prisoners, according to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners, whose data is endorsed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Of this number 45 people were arrested between May 28 and November 22.
On the list of political prisoners there are seven who were aspiring to the presidency, two former vice chancellors, two historic dissident Sandinista ex-guerrillas, a business leader, a banker, a former first lady, five opposition leaders, a journalist, and two student leaders.
Likewise, in the total group of 170, there are 27 who are between 19 and 25 years old, including two in “la 300”, the group of maximum security cells of the Jorge Navarro National Penitentiary System, of Tipitapa, Managua, known as “La Modelo”.
“The relatives of political prisoners are very concerned especially about the detainees who are older adults or who have chronic diseases such as Don José (Pallais), Doña Violeta (Granera), Hugo Torres Jiménez because they have diseases and they are in these conditions suffering a lot ”, claims one of the relatives.
The only visit that was not made in the prison was that of the retired general Hugo Torres, who for more than a week has not been in his cell at the Directorate of Judicial Aid, presumably due to a worsening of his health condition.
Sources linked to the National Police confirmed that the retired general has been in a delicate health condition for more than 15 days, but did not reveal the diagnosis of his illness and whether he had been transferred to a police or hospital hospital. Army, which he served for more than a decade, or Social Security.
