The lawyer Manuel Urbina Lara, sentenced to four years for reckless homicide after being involved in a traffic accident in which a person died, is being held in the Waswalí Regional Penitentiary System, in Matagalpa, isolated and under the surveillance of two inmates, according to his son Erick Urbina.
“They have him in subhuman conditions. He is bolted, he is in a cell that does not have access to walk like the other inmates outside in the entire pavilion, but his is a small cell where he shares with two paramilitaries who watch him. They have them there to be watching all his movements, ”describes the son.
Urbina Lara, critic of the Daniel Ortega regime, was sentenced in March 2021, then the Prosecutor’s Office accused him and prevented him and the family of José Rizo, victim of the accident, from reaching mediation. The relatives even denounced with the Permanent Commission of Human Rights (CPDH) that they did not file the complaint. However, the case continued until he was convicted.
Urbina Lara’s health conditions have deteriorated, as she suffers from high blood pressure. Likewise, a few weeks ago she suffered from facial paralysis, after learning that her son became ill due to the stress caused by her father’s condition.
“I was sick, I had a problem with my cervical spine, several nerves were compressed and my left arm went numb (…) from so much trouble, from so much stress because I am the one who sees him. So, when he realized that I was in poor health and that I was in the hospital, he got worse. He gave him facial paralysis and numbness in his left foot, ”explains Urbina.
As he describes, his father does receive medical care at the prison, but the center does not meet all the appropriate conditions. Prisoners do not have access to specialist doctors and are prescribed the most readily available medicines. However, he points out that his father is checked periodically for his pressure problem.
Urbina explains that he and his family are not requesting a change in the prison regime because the lawyer has made it clear that “he does not bend before orteguista justice”, and rather unaware of the judicial system controlled by the Government.
“He maintains that he is unaware of the Judicial Power of this country, so he did not even appeal his sentence,” explains his son.
Political prisoner has precautionary measures
The accident for which he was convicted occurred on January 24, 2021. That day the lawyer gave him RAID to Rizo, 29, and he got into the tub of Urbina Lara’s truck. However, at kilometer 172 of the highway to Pantasma, the vehicle went into an abyss.
According to the National Police version, Urbina Lara was speeding. However, the lawyer stated that the accident occurred because a car invaded his lane and that is why he lost control of the truck. That day, the lawyer made a live broadcast warning that the Ortega authorities would accuse him of being drunk.
Manuel Urbina Lara is considered one of the 177 political prisoners kept by the Daniel Ortega regime in prison, according to national human rights organizations such as the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh).
On December 31, 2021, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures him and the prisoner of conscience Benjamín Gutiérrez, considering that they are “in a situation of seriousness, urgency and irreparable damage.” The IACHR also stated that as part of the protocol in the middle of last year they requested information about Urbina Lara from the Nicaraguan authorities, but received no response.
