The authorities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Emmanuel Macron affirmed that they are “concerned” about the situation of the French citizens Jeannine Horvilleur Cuadra, 63, and her daughter Ana Álvarez Horvilleur, 43, who were accused of the alleged crimes of conspiracy to undermine the national integrity and propagation of false news.
“We are concerned about the conditions of confinement and the state of health of both. Despite numerous requests to the Nicaraguan authorities, consular access to the trial was not granted,” laments the Foreign Ministry of the European country, which since the arrest of both said it was closely monitoring the situation and asked the Ortega-Murillo regime to exercise consular protection.
Related news: Organization repudiates political trial against Franco-Nicaraguan citizens
This January 18, a mother and daughter were sentenced along with her husband Félix Roiz Sotomayor, who have been detained since September 13, 2022, when the Police were looking for the Nicaraguan opposition member Javier Álvarez Zamora, who managed to leave the country to request international protection. .
Mother and daughter suffer from chronic illnesses. Jeannine’s situation has been especially denounced by human rights organizations because she is an elderly cancer survivor.
After two days of trial, Ortega judge Félix Ernesto Salmerón, of the Fifth Criminal District Court of Managua, found French citizens Jeannine Horvilleur Cuadra and Ana Álvarez Horvilleur guilty. In this same process, they sentenced 10 years in prison against Félix Roiz, husband of Ana Carolina.
After learning of the guilty verdict, the opponent and political exile Javier Álvarez acknowledged that he was expecting it. “I did not expect anything good from this government, they – the Ortega dictatorship – are not able to have empathy for people, they cannot accept that there are those in Nicaragua who think differently from what they think,” he lamented.
France has reiterated that “our demand for consular communication with our two compatriots, as provided for in Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of April 24, 1963, which stipulates that consular officers shall have the right to visit the national of the State that sends that he is arrested, detained or in preventive detention, and to talk with him. We wish, in particular, to have more information about the conditions of detention and the state of his health ».
