Soraya Rodríguez, deputy representing Spain before the European Parliament, denounced the situation of the more than 180 political prisoners in Nicaragua, “many of them convicted of illegitimate sentences,” she said.
Through a video broadcast through her Twitter account, the Spanish deputy asked the European Union (EU) to apply sanctions against the judges of the regime for being “part of the repressive arm of the Ortega dictatorship.”
Rodríguez stated that “the situation of political prisoners in Nicaragua is limiting. More than 170 political prisoners are still in Nicaraguan prisons, women in charge such as Dora María Téllez, Támara Dávila, Suyen Barahona or Ana Margarita Vijil, among many other political prisoners have been facing real torture for more than a year, in deplorable conditions of isolation, absence of medical attention and harassment of their relatives”.
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With these circumstances, the MEP values as “a humanitarian emergency” what the hostages of conscience suffer. Rodríguez denounces that the trials against opponents “led to illegitimate sentences that only confirm the repressive drift of the Nicaraguan dictatorship. The judicial system has become a repressive arm in the hands of Ortega.
He assures that the judges who have had in their hands the sentences passed against opponents “are not only accomplices of the dictatorship, they are also responsible for human rights violations for that reason.” He points out that due to this situation they have requested before the Working Group on Latin America that they “urgently convene the European Union to include these judges in the list of individual sanctions for human rights violations in Nicaragua.” The meeting will be held tomorrow, Thursday, May 12.
“Impunity accumulates in Nicaragua, it is no longer enough to condemn the Ortega dictatorship with words. We must act with concrete actions that isolate the regime and that send a clear message from the European Union that we are with Nicaragua, that we want to accompany the people in the defense of their freedoms,” demanded the MEP who signed with Javier Nart and Jordi Cañas , who lead the initiative that seeks to sanction Ortega judges.
The High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Spaniard Josep Borrell, harshly criticized, on May 4, the regime of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, which he described as “one of the most repressive in the planet”.
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“What is in Nicaragua is a dictatorship, it is a repressive regime,” Borrell considered during an interview with Efe after participating in Panama in a meeting of foreign ministers of the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the Caribbean Community ( Caricom) with the EU, to which the only government that did not attend was that of Ortega.
To date, the Ortega justice system holds more than 180 people captive for political reasons, 35 of them are in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance in Managua. Their families have pointed out that many have medical complications. The health condition of the prisoners is aggravated by the confinement conditions and the poor diet of which they are victims.
