Five French organizations condemned the political persecution carried out by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua, against the citizens Jeanine Horvilleur and Ana Carolina Álvarez, who have that nationality, and asked the French authorities to “intervene as soon as possible to obtain their release”, and to drop the charges against them.
On the night of September 13, police officers showed up at the house of the persecuted politician Javier Álvarez Zamora and went looking for him to take him away, but at that moment he had already managed to leave the country to get safe, without imagining the reprisal that I would take the regimen.
“They searched the entire house and when they did not find me, because they are looking for me, they took my daughter, who at that moment is accompanying my wife. They also raided my daughter’s house, where she lives with her husband, Félix Roiz Sotomayor, and they also took him to prison ”, denounced in an interview to the program this week.
The statement signed by CCFD Terre Solidaires (Solidarity with the Earth); the Occitania Committee of Nicaragua (CNO); the Collective of Solidarity with the People of Nicaragua (CSPN, for its acronym in French); France Latin America (FAL) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), also calls for the release of Roiz Sotomayor; that the trial against him be annulled, and that Paris grant him political asylum.
The signatory organizations refer that -as has happened with the relatives of other opposition political figures- when the Police did not find Álvarez at his home, “imprisoned his family to force him to turn himself in. When this hateful blackmail failed, the courts did not hesitate to initiate the process and demand this improbable sentence ”, for which they insisted on demanding “their unconditional release of him and the drop of the charges against them ”.
“Although they are French-Nicaraguan, Jeanine Horvilleur and her daughter Ana Carolina have not been allowed the right to consular visits. For this reason, we ask the French authorities to intervene as soon as possible to obtain his release and that of Félix Roiz…. There are more than 230 political prisoners in the different jails of the country, arbitrarily detained and sentenced and subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including torture”, they add.
French chancellery expressed concern for “the conditions of confinement and the state of health” of Jeannine (63), and her daughter Ana (43), and revealed that “despite numerous requests to the Nicaraguan authorities, consular access to the trial was not granted.”
Global repudiation against blackmail
On a larger scale, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (Oacnudh) also ruled on the sentences of Álvarez’s relatives, as well as that of Father Óscar Benavidesnoting that “the unprecedented and serious sentences… against a priest and three relatives of a dissident for undermining national integrity and spreading false news, violate due process and confirm that persecution in Nicaragua has no limits.”
#Nicaragua – The unprecedented and serious sentences yesterday and today against 1 priest and 3 relatives of a dissident, for undermining national integrity and spreading false news, violate due process and confirm that persecution in Nicaragua has no limits.
— OACNUDH (@OACNUDH) January 18, 2023
From Costa Rica, the Nicaragua Nunca Más Human Rights Collective said that it repudiated “the guilty plea against Jeanine Horvilleur, 63 years old, and her daughter Ana Carolina Álvarez Horvilleur, 43 years old, both with Nicaraguan and French nationalities, for being unconstitutional, unfair, and infamous.”
The Collective recalls that “mother and daughter suffer from chronic illnesses, aggravating the situation of Jeanine, who is an elderly cancer survivor. During the trial, the prosecution has requested eight years in prison for the crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and/or propagation of false news through information and communication technologies to the detriment of the State and Nicaraguan society.” .
The .@CollectiveNever repudiates the guilty plea against Jeannine Horvilleur, 63 years old, and her daughter Ana Carolina Álvarez Horvilleur, 43 years old, both with Nicaraguan and French nationalities, for being unconstitutional, unfair and infamous #Nicaragua pic.twitter.com/lidUycYoY6
— Human Rights Collective “Nicaragua Never +” (@ColectivoNunca) January 19, 2023
For this reason, like their French counterparts, they demanded “the immediate cessation of these arbitrary trials, the freedom of Jeanine and Ana Carolina, as well as the more than 240 political prisoners in Nicaragua.”
Several more cases illustrate persecution against relatives of political prisoners or opposition leaders in exile.
One of them is the arrest of Rodrigo Navarrete, uncle of the political prisoner Jaime Navarrete, who was captured on November 25 in the Loma Linda neighborhood, southwest of Managua. After four years of demanding the release of his nephew, he is now accused of “illegal possession or possession of firearms and ammunition.”
Another is the capture of Freddy Porrasbrother of the leader of the Unamos political party, Dulce María Porras, and of Andrea Margarita del Carmen, the exiled former director of programs of the defunct center PEN Nicaraguawhose son, Gabriel Alfonso López, was captured by the Police to force his mother to return to Nicaragua.
More recently, the sixty-year-old Martha del Socorro Ubillamother of political prisoner Marvin Castellón Ubilla and former prisoner Marlon Castellón Ubilla, was arrested and is being prosecuted by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, for the alleged commission of an unknown crime.
