The International PEN organization, through its “Ojo con Nicaragua” observatory, demands the release of journalists Miguel Mora and Miguel Mendoza who are serving a year of confinement in the cells of the Ortega regime, after being detained in the hunt carried out against opponents prior to the presidential elections of November 2021.
“Journalists Miguel Mora and Miguel Mendoza have been arbitrarily detained for a year. The founder of 100% Noticias was imprisoned for the second time on June 20, 2021. Only one day later, the Police arrested the sports writer,” denounced the international defense organization.
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PEN also highlighted the demand of the Nicaraguan Independent Journalists and Communicators (PCIN) who demand the release of prisoners of conscience, pointing out that “the dissemination of thought is a constitutional right and should never be criminalized. There are 365 days of systematic violations of their fundamental rights.
Mora was a presidential candidate for the Reverend Saturnino Cerrato’s Democratic Restoration Party (PRD) and would dispute the candidacy of the National Coalition (CN) to unite the opposition in a single block and face Daniel Ortega at the polls. He was also accused of undermining national integrity, sentenced to 13 years in prison.
On the other hand, Mendoza was a critic on social networks and television programs where he participated, expounding his ideas on his Twitter account, from which the Prosecutor’s Office used several tweets to prove his alleged guilt for the crime of undermining national integrity and spread of fake news. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.
PCIN pointed out that the systematic attacks by the Nicaraguan dictatorship against independent journalism and the closure of the few media outlets that still operate in the country are of “great concern.”
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Along these lines, PEN also denounced the ban on the entry to Nicaragua of Univision journalist Tifani Roberts who tried to travel from the United States to visit her mother, who lives in Managua, on June 16. On her Twitter account, the journalist denounced that the Colombian airline Avianca prevented her from boarding her flight after notifying her that she was not allowed to enter her country.
They affirm that this action “openly violates the human rights of Roberts, who should not be prevented from entering the country because he has Nicaraguan nationality.”
