The massive raids, carried out since the night of May 3, by Police at the service of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship is nothing more than a “maneuver that intends to inflict terror” among the opposition population for fear of a new popular protest. “That does not let them sleep,” say opponents.
The opposition leader and member of the Articulation of Social Movements organization Ivania Álvarez, from exile, opined that the Nicaraguan regime implements a new repressive and control method that consists of forcing the opponents that it has “marked” to present themselves to the courts to sign daily.
Since last Wednesday, around 6:00 p.m., dozens of policemen aboard patrol cars have mobilized throughout the country, making arrests and raids on opponents. The “night of long knives” lasted until well into the morning and left 57 citizens detained, interrogated and accused before the Ortega justice system, according to Blue and White Monitoring.
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Among those detained and now being prosecuted are two journalists, William Aragón and Hazel Zamora, who join the one who was already detained, Víctor Ticay, but who have not yet been charged. Ticay remains in the cells of the dictatorship and the other two were sent to their homes.
Most are accused of allegedly spreading false news or undermining or national integrity; political crimes that the dictatorship invented in 2021 to suppress the opposition.
Cell phones, computers, cameras and even digital storage devices and in some cases even money were confiscated from all those detained and later released, Álvarez denounces, taking into account reports they have received.
Related news: Organization demands that Ortega release reporter Víctor Ticay and cease persecution against journalists
For Álvarez, the dictatorship is trying to tell the population that “it has absolute control over all Nicaraguans and that it can dispose of their lives. With that they intend to inflict terror, it is a new method of repression and State terrorism, “said the leader. This new method implemented, explained Álvarez, includes “forcing them to sign in court every day, taking photos of them, keeping them under complete control and they will no longer be able to work,” leaves them economically helpless because there we have lawyers, teachers, people from the free trade zone who, because they are prosecuted and forced to appear daily before a court, will have to leave their jobs”.
For his part, the retired senior of the Nicaraguan Army, now in exile, Roberto Samcam, considers that the raids carried out by the dictatorship, in addition to seeking to terrorize, are also a message to the US telling it that here, in this country , the dictators do what they want and that they don’t care that they lower diplomatic relations to the level of chargé d’affaires and even less that they care that they send an expert on security issues from the Council of State to head the diplomatic delegation.
