Daniel Ortega’s regime, through the Institute of Telecommunications and Post Office (Telcor), canceled the transmission licenses for radio station La Guarachera, in Chinandega, and radio Sky, in León, both belonging to the family of businessman Aníbal Toruño, who He is in exile due to the political persecution against him.
The new attack by the regime comes three days after the cancellation of Radio Darío, also belonging to Toruño, in a context of repression against independent media in Nicaragua. So the businessman warns that it is “a political issue.”
According to Toruño, a delegation from Telcor appeared on the morning of this Monday, August 15, at the facilities of both broadcasters to carry out an inspection, took notes, took photographs and then left the place.
Hours later, Telcor officials came back questioning why the radios were located in a different place from the one they had when they were authorized by the regulatory entity and automatically ordered to immediately suspend their transmissions.
A few minutes ago, 2 radio stations were closed to members of my family. I raise my complaint before the onslaught against us, a genocide against freedom of expression monstrous madness of ORMU, a new R Darío has been born never shut up! @camilocnn @jorgeramosnews @cefeche @TifaniRoberts
– Anibal Toruno (@AnibalToruno) August 15, 2022
Telcor’s argument for canceling radio La Guarachera and radio Sky is the same one used last Friday against radio Darío. On that occasion, the regulatory entity questioned that the radio, burned in 2018, continued to operate in another residence to which it was authorized; that the main transmitter is located on El Fortín hill and has other characteristics than the approved license.
They argue that the radio was transmitting with a power of 100 watts, which does not correspond to the approved power of 500 watts, and that they were using the 293.5 frequency without permission. “The immediate cessation of its transmissions is ordered, all under penalty of law,” orders the letter.
For Toruño, the real reason for closing the radio stations is that they belonged to his family and that the regime’s operators in the west of the country have classified them as opponents.
“I want to tell you that turning off a transmitter does not turn off voices and Radio Darío, although it has been destroyed, raided, besieged, continues to generate content and their voices have not been turned off,” Toruño said.
Both radio La Guarachera and radio Sky broadcast musical content and did not include news content in their programming. However, Toruño assessed, the regime intends “to do with the media (of communication) the same as with the NGOs.”
Toruño also specified that with the closure of these two stations between 25 and 28 people will be left without a job. The impact “is great” both locally and nationally because the right to freedom of the press and expression continues to be violated.
With the closure of these two stations, a total of 16 local media outlets have been closed so far this month of August, most of them located in the north of Nicaragua. The state entity, led by Nahima Díaz Flores, daughter of Police Chief Francisco Díaz, Daniel Ortega’s in-law, has argued that the media allegedly “do not have the necessary permits to operate.”
Telcor closed ten stations from the Diocese of Matagalpa between August 1 and 2 —directed by Bishop Rolando José Álvarez, who is kidnapped in the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa—, the independent Radio Vos, and took two channels that were transmitted through subscription television off the air: the local channel RB3 “El Canal de la Zona Láctea”, also from Matagalpa, and the NGTV3 channel, which was broadcast in Nueva Guinea, in the Nicaraguan South Caribbean, owned by the journalist Galo José Suárez Jaime.
