The newspaper La Prensa, the oldest in Nicaragua, denounced this Friday that the government of President Daniel Ortega began a “hunt” against its staff and arrested two of its drivers.
“The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo began, since Wednesday night, a hunt against the staff of the newspaper La Prensa, including drivers, photographers and reporters,” said that newspaper.
Two workers from La Prensa, which circulates in digital format due to the retention of their paper since August 12, 2021 because the Government, through the General Directorate of Customs, withheld their paper, “were kidnapped and it is presumed that they are in the cells of the new Chipote (National Police prison)”, indicated the media in its digital version.
“The persecution was directed at the team that covered the expulsion from Nicaragua of the Missionaries of Charity (of the Mother Teresa of Calcutta order) by Ortega,” he explained.
ARRESTED IN THEIR HOMES CLOSE TO MIDNIGHT
According to the complaint, one of the detained drivers was the one who transferred the journalistic team of La Prensa during the coverage of the expulsion of the missionaries, who “was kidnapped from his family’s house at nightfall on Wednesday.”
The other driver was “not involved” in that coverage and was detained by police around midnight Wednesday, he added.
Related news: La Prensa: “We are facing one more attack to shut up” in the face of new arrests and raids on its workers
“Later, police patrols arrived at the house of the reporter who covered the issue and the home of a photographer was raided during the early hours of Thursday,” he continued.
La Prensa demanded “the regime respect the laws” and “that the detainees be released and the persecution against the newspaper’s staff cease, who are people who only carry out their work, without committing any crime.”
The media recalled that “the history of the newspaper La Prensa is full of abuses perpetrated by those who feel threatened by the constitutionally established right of citizens to give and receive information.”
“We are facing one more attack to shut up,” he said.
La Prensa’s complaint comes 11 months after its headquarters were occupied by the National Police, and the arrest of its general manager, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, sentenced last April to nine years in prison and a financial fine after being charged laundering of money, goods or assets.
CENIDH: IT IS PERSECUTION OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) considered that what was denounced by La Prensa “is part of the infamous persecution and expulsion of the nuns (of the Missionaries of Charity), but it also becomes a persecution and limitation of the freedom of expression”.
Related news: Ortega police “kidnap” two drivers of La Prensa
That body warned that the “already difficult work of independent journalists is becoming more difficult” in Nicaragua.
Likewise, he demanded “immediate freedom” for the drivers of La Prensa “and the cessation of the persecution and threats to the other members of the team who, while carrying out their work, were harassed along with their families in their own homes.”
According to the regional network Voces del Sur, at least 118 Nicaraguan journalists have gone into exile for security reasons since April 2018, when the sociopolitical crisis in Nicaragua broke out.
