A moving silence prevailed during the first embrace in the reunion between Martha Ubilla and his son Marvin Castellón, 20 years old. Also the tears and an uncertainty that did not end, despite the unexpected closeness. “Mother: I thought I was leaving you, but now we are together. I no longer want to know anything about this country, ”she told him on the plane, before the flight to the United States left.
Neither she nor he knew that they were part of the 222 political prisoners that the Daniel Ortega regime exiled and then stripped of their “nationality” in a series of measures considered by human rights lawyers. as violations of international standards.
Ubilla is 61 years old and is an opponent of the dictatorship. Until her exile, she had been detained for a month in the cells of District III of the Police in Managua. Her son had been captured since the 2018 protests, when the authorities began the persecution against him, despite the fact that he was a minor.
According to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners of Nicaragua, The young man was in cell 44, Gallery 6, in the La Modelo Penitentiary System in Tipitapa, north of the capital. Just like the other hundreds of political prisoners, they only told them that they had to get on the buses, without explaining what the final destination of that trip would be, which filled everyone with uncertainty until they arrived at the International Airport and they were told that they would be sent into exile.
“The devil took my land (Nicaragua) from me, but the happiness that God gave me was to send me to this place and reunite with all my relatives who had come because of politics. Nephews, sons-in-law, my children… We are together, free, even though we are overcrowded,” says Ubilla, from Florida, where he regrets that he still has relatives in Managua.
The other reunion: his other son released from prison
That February 9, the mother lacked another joy. After looking at Marvin, she needed to meet again with her other son Marlon, 28, also a prisoner of conscience and exiled on US soil. He left Nicaragua in March 2022, together with thirteen members of his family to protect his integrity. Today he makes a living gardening and struggles to support his family.
The state harassment against Marlon was also colossal. According to journalistic records, he was imprisoned until December 15, 2021 for the same reasons as his other relatives: participating in the massive protests that demanded Ortega’s resignation in 2018.
These peaceful demonstrations, which arose after the without consultation approval of the Social Security reforms in Nicaragua, were brutally repressed by the dictatorship, through the Police and Ortega armed groups. The balance of deaths totaled 355 and more than 2,000 injuries were reported.
According to documents of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), attached to the Organization of American States (OAS), the Ubilla family was subjected to a police siege.
In the months after the protests, Ubilla suffered an attempt on his life, after paramilitaries shot past his house, without hurting anyone.
On July 9, 2018, she and her daughter-in-law were transferred to the Directorate of Judicial Assistance where they suffered “physical and psychological violence” for 15 days. Even when she visited hers, her son Marvin, in La Modelo prison, they forced her to undress and they tried to touch her private parts.
In July 2018, the brothers were ambushed by paramilitaries who also shot at the vehicle in which they were traveling. Marvin was also beaten and taken to District III where he remained for 20 days and then sent to La Modelo prison “where he allegedly suffered torture.” This situation was not enough for the authorities who, before the IACHR, attributed common crimes to the young people.
a police interrogation sui generis
On January 11, 2023, Mrs. Ubilla was kidnapped from her home at four in the morning. They broke down the door of her house and she soon found herself surrounded by uniformed men, some wearing hoods, who told her that they were coming to bring her because she was the subject of an “investigation.”
“I have not killed or robbed anyone, I am a 60-year-old woman,” she replied at some point to her pursuers. However, she was accused that the “destruction that the country was experiencing was due to everything she talked about in the media.”
The officers referred in this way to the complaints about the situation of political prisoners and the demand for the release of his son Marvin. The aggression continued when they took her to the police station in Managua.
They allegedly showed her the appearances on zoom where she said that Ortega was a thief and a rapist. To intimidate her, her officers told her that they could put the “commander” in front of her so he could tell her.” She never regretted it.
Rather, she told them that she could tell her whatever she wanted, especially now that the regime had her in jail. “I am a very strong woman of character, I am not afraid of them, I have never been afraid of the police or any of them. I am not going to be afraid of them today more than ever, even if I am in the United States,” said Ubilla.
For this woman, that challenge remains intact when it is almost a month since she was reunited with her children. If something is clear in her words, it is that she does not intend to fail herself, despite adverse situations.
