The political prisoner José Antonio Peraza celebrates this Monday, September 26, 15 months of being detained in the cells of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), known as “El Nuevo Chipote”, a place where he is subjected to cruel, inhuman treatment and degrading, as their relatives and human rights organizations have denounced on various occasions.
On August 30, the political scientist was presented to the dictatorship’s propaganda media for the first time in more than a year of captivity.
He was taken to the Managua courts before Judge Octavio Rothschuh Villanueva for an “informative hearing” on his political case. In the images released, it is noted that Peraza is very thin and his relatives have denounced that he is thin as a result of the limited and little food he receives, this has caused him to suffer from malnutrition. Before being arrested he weighed 210 pounds.
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On July 15, they released a spoken portrait of the political prisoner, his family denounced that he has lost 60 pounds of weight, presents a notorious malnutrition and suffers from various skin diseases that are not treated by any specialist doctor, despite repeated calls for these health problems to be resolved and his life is not in danger .
Peraza was violently detained on June 26, 2021 when he was at his home on the outskirts of Managua. In prison he has been subjected to extensive interrogations, poor nutrition, few hours of sunlight a week and no access to medicine to treat the illnesses he has developed during his captivity.
The dictatorship accused him of violating Law 1055, the Sovereignty Law, a legal tool approved by the deputies of the dictatorship to persecute, imprison and prosecute opponents of the Ortega-Murillo regime.
The opponent, a specialist in political and electoral systems, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on February 17. He was also disqualified from holding public office by Judge Ángel Jancarlos Fernández González, of the Fourth Criminal District Court of Managua, sanctioned by the United States.
Leaders of Unamos serve 470 days in detention
On June 13, 2021, 470 days ago, the Sandinista regime launched a hunt against some of 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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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, to eight years each.
