The opposition and former liberal deputy Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios celebrates this November 7 500 days of having been taken as a political prisoner by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. The regime kept him in prison for 10 months and then sent him to his house for house arrest.
His family and various human rights organizations have demanded the immediate release of the 71-year-old political prisoner, whom the Ortega-Murillo regime first accused of allegedly undermining sovereignty and then linked him to other crimes in the same case against his sister, former presidential candidate Cristiana Chamorro.
According to organizations of relatives of political prisoners, Chamorro was in poor health, with weight loss and symptoms of chronic illnesses, due to the inhuman and degrading treatment to which opposition leaders imprisoned in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance are subjected ( DAJ), known as “El Chipote”.
Related news: Pedro Joaquín Chamorro is serving a year in “unfair and illegal” prison
Chamorro Barrios was arbitrarily detained on Friday, June 25, around midnight. Before the kidnapping, a truck with policemen watched his house from eight at night in the Palma Real condominium, located in Managua. Then a contingent of policemen arrived in vehicles to search the building and seize some of his belongings.
Before being imprisoned, he constantly demanded the freedom of his sister, former presidential candidate Cristiana Chamorro Barrios, and blamed the Ortega-Murillo regime for what might happen to her. Pedro Joaquín had also expressed the possibility of running for the Presidency of Nicaragua.
On the night of March 11, Chamorro was found guilty of the alleged crime of abusive management, ideological falsehood, appropriation and improper retention from the extinct Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation (FVBCh). He was sentenced to nine years in prison and disqualified from holding public office for the same period, after a marathon impeachment trial held behind closed doors.
In addition to Pedro Joaquín, his sister Cristiana, his cousins Juan Sebastián Chamorro and the general manager of the Press, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, all considered political prisoners of the Daniel Ortega dictatorship, are also imprisoned.
