Daniel Ortega’s regime imposed a “hunger policy” against political prisoners locked up in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, known as El Chipote, applying in the last month a drastic reduction in the amount of food they receive, denounced relatives of the inmates of conscience after attending the tenth period of visits, authorized between August 26 and 28.
The relatives pointed out, in an interview with the program This weekthat in a plate of food political prisoners can receive between 40 and 45 grains of beans, three grams of rice (100 grains), three centimeters of banana and two teaspoons of meat.
“Immediately after the previous visits (carried out between July 22 and 24) the reduction in food was drastic. There is a new policy of hunger directed, intentional, to wear down, to annihilate, to reduce the physical capacities of our relatives,” denounced Ana Lucía Álvarez, sister and niece of political prisoners Tamara Dávila and Ana Margarita Vijil, respectively.
“During the visit, they told us that in the dishes that they give them you can count the beans, which can be 40 grains of beans, two tablespoons of meat, when they give them meat, three centimeters of plantain, when they give them plantain, and zero vegetables, so the conditions they are in are extremely precarious, extremely worrying,” he added.
Álvarez pointed out that his sister, although she was transferred to a barred cell, continues to be “isolated, incommunicado and alone, and without receiving adequate medical care.”
“She was feverish and they never got to see her or know how she was. She still does not receive gynecological care. She hasn’t had a period for a year and she hasn’t had any care. The prisoners who have had tests still do not receive the results and there is a policy of punishing all the personnel, who in some way have a humane treatment with our relatives in prison, ”she pointed out.
Daniel Ortega’s regime keeps more than 190 people imprisoned for political reasons in Nicaragua. According to a hemerographic review of CONFIDENTIAL and data collected in monthly lists of the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners, at least 34 of these citizens are in the cells of El Chipote, known as an Ortega torture center.
The political prisoners of El Chipote have only received ten visits in almost 15 months of confinement. Prior to the authorized meetings between July 22 and 24, after a campaign of spoken portraits that denounced the emaciated physical state of prisoners of conscience, the regime applied an increase in the portion of food that they received in that prison center. The relatives, at that time, revealed the improvement in the quantity of food, although not in the quality, and they said they feared that the measure was not permanent.
Pedro Vásquez loses weight and has hearing problems
Norma Vega, wife of political prisoner Pedro Vásquez, denounced that this drastic reduction in the food received by her partner, who suffers from pressure and colon problems, has caused her to lose another three pounds of weight, thus adding 63 pounds less. in 14 months of imprisonment in El Chipote.
“The food has been reduced. They have been giving him only rice and beans, and the truth is that this was not the case. Before, he told me, when she complained about the spoken portraits, the food improved but now what they give her is about 30 grams of rice served, nothing more, just rice and beans. When they give him meat it is like giving him one or two teaspoons and if it is shredded it is five shreds of meat, it is not like they gave him before, which was supposedly so that we would find him fat, nothing, now everything has changed, “he denounced.
In addition, she pointed out that her husband still does not receive medical attention for the hearing problem that he has developed in that confinement, although, she rescued, he does receive medicine to control his pressure and colon problems.
“I am concerned about your problem with your ears. He hardly hears, he is going deaf and he didn’t suffer from that before being imprisoned. Now so that he can listen, you have to speak loudly to him and they have not checked him, they have not taken care of that problem, ”he pointed out.
Felix Maradiaga lost weight again
Berta Valle, wife of political prisoner Félix Maradiaga, a candidate for the presidency in 2021, also denounced that the portions of food that her partner receives “returned to how they were at the beginning and, having no chance to entertain themselves and having all the time, he even took the task of counting the grains of beans, rice, the amount of protein they give them, and we can really conclude that it is a totally deficient diet.
He explained that during the visit they managed to verify that Maradiaga’s weight is 152 pounds, the same weight he had on July 2, when they managed to see him in the images that the Ortega regime showed through its official media.
“Felix is weighing 152 pounds, he had gained about three pounds in those days where the food had improved, however, as they returned to the initial regimen, with extremely reduced portions, he lost weight again, he is still extremely thin. Relatives who managed to see him insisted on how loose his uniform was, even commenting that his slippers were loose because the weight loss has been widespread, ”he indicated.
“For us, what happens with food portions is extremely alarming because it directly affects the health in which they are found. As relatives, we continue to insist and demand unconditional release, but while that happens, they have to guarantee the well-being of these political prisoners,” he added.
Poor diet affects chronic conditions of Miguel Mendoza
Margin Pozo, wife of sportswriter Miguel Mendoza, denounced that the decrease in food portions received by the political prisoner, who suffers from diabetes and hypertension, is affecting his health as he continues to lose weight.
“It shocked me a lot when I saw it because it is thinner. I cannot specify how many pounds he has lost because he told us that they have not taken him to the clinic and he does not know his exact weight, however, physically he looks quite thin. Unfortunately, since the last visit we had, her food portions have decreased,” he stated.
He denounced that Mendoza “continues to present discomfort in his left leg, pain in the bone” and has not received medical attention from a specialist.
“He is not being treated as he should, especially for being a patient like him, with chronic diabetes and now hypertensive. The person who comes to see him in the cell, because they are not taking him to the clinic, he told me, is not listening to the discomforts that he manifests, such as the cramps in his legs and that pain that he now has in the part of his bone of the leg on the left side, and although he has expressed that he does not feel well, they do not give him the medicines, ”he said.
Medardo Mairena dropped another six pounds
Alfredo Mairena, brother of peasant leader Medardo Mairena, also denounced that his relative continues to lose weight as a result of the poor diet he receives in El Chipote.
“He is still in a punishment cell, along with another person. The cell in which he is is similar to Infiernillo, that of La Modelo, locked up, with four walls, only with a small window, which when it is hot is suffocating and it is difficult for them to breathe. In addition, he continues to lose weight, before he had lost 68 pounds and now it is 74 pounds less, there is no improvement, “he denounced.
He stated that, although his brother is taken to the El Chipote clinic, he is still not being treated for problems that he has had for four months, such as the “problem in one of his knees or poor blood circulation.”
“They just medicate him. They do not test him to find out what he has and that worries us, ”she stressed.
He mentioned that Medardo is authorized access to the sun patio once a week, but he continues to be subjected to interrogations that may be once or twice a week.
Mistreatment during visits
Alfredo denounced that during the visits, which Medardo receives from two women of the family, the treatment is denigrating and abusive, since their relatives are forced to undress and they even check their “intimate parts”.
In addition, he pointed out that they are notified to attend the meetings a few hours in advance and, in the case of relatives who attend to see Medardo, it is difficult for them to arrive because they must travel up to nine hours to get to the meeting in Managua. .
“This time they notified a day before, on August 26, but until around four in the afternoon, and just to leave the community where they live it takes two hours and from there another seven to get to Managua, so they had They had to leave as soon as they were called, without preparing almost anything, to be able to enter the visit, ”he indicated.
“In other visits they have been called the same day, but those times it has saved them that they have left as soon as they know that others are already going to visits, because if they don’t do it that way they don’t come, because there is no calendar, a visit program , nothing, they make everything difficult so that people cannot get there”, he denounced.
Tamara Dávila’s relatives, Ana Lucía Álvarez denounced, were notified of the visit only two hours in advance, leaving them with less possibility of preparing to attend the meeting.
“There is an intention that they cannot actually arrive. They put all the possible obstacles so that they cannot arrive on time, prepare whatever they are going to take, see if they let you deliver it there. Everything, absolutely everything is a struggle, it is a daily, daily struggle, even to let water, drinks, or to know if there is a visit or when there is one, ”Dávila’s sister denounced.
“The situation is again alarming, critical. I feel that there is an SOS that really needs to be launched because there is an intentional policy of wear and tear here, of torture, of undermining not only through the policy of hunger, but in the face of the systematic policy of not making a schedule of visits, allowing regularization of visits from boys and girls”, he highlighted.
Minors are still not allowed to attend visits
Miguel Mendoza’s wife denounced that, once again, her eight-year-old daughter was not authorized to see her father, despite the fact that the regime authorized, on August 18, that political prisoners Miguel Mora and Tamara Dávila see their children. , after they pressured them by protesting a hunger strike.
“On this occasion that they called us for a visit, I asked them if I could take the girl and very rudely they replied that only if I had a judge’s order, if I didn’t have it, I shouldn’t insist on a visit, which I thought was not the right thing to do. adequate response because we have carried, through the lawyer, eleven documents where it is legally and formally requested that the girl be able to see her father and we do not have an answer, “Pozo denounced.
“My daughter has been damaged in her physical and emotional health. She has been ill in recent weeks and is being treated by a psychologist for the symptoms she has presented. She cries a lot at night. She tells me that she is afraid that something will happen to her father. She sometimes asks me if her father is really alive because she has not seen him, “she detailed.
Berta Valle also denounced that she and her daughter, who are exiled due to persecution by the regime, have not been able to have, in more than thirteen months, any type of communication with Maradiaga.
“It’s already been a year and three months without having any kind of direct communication with Félix. We have insisted as relatives through social networks, presenting different documentation to the Police, to the courts, to insist on compliance with the law, because, we insist, we are asking for something as mandated by the rule, nothing extraordinary, “he stressed.
Both mothers urged that their little ones, and the children of the other political prisoners in El Chipote, be authorized to have regular visits or some type of communication with their unjustly imprisoned parents, since the incommunicado and isolation imposed by the regime continues to affect the health of their daughters.
