Several police patrols returned to appear this Sunday at the home of the family of Carlos Pavón, father of the young Richard Pavón, one of the first murdered during the 2018 protests. Police officers stationed themselves near the entrance of his house, in Tipitapa, without justification, or any court order for the second consecutive day.
“Their siege is constant: last Sunday they still came. They arrive, they stand in front of my house or next to my house. Sometimes two patrols, with up to twelve armed. Most of the time they don’t say anything, but still, one’s blood boils when one sees them,” he recounted.
Precisely this Saturday, February 19, her son celebrated 42 months since he was murdered, while his crime – like that of 354 other Nicaraguans – remains unpunished.
“My mother gets stressed and anguished when she hears that I answer them and complain to them, because instead of doing justice, they come to intimidate me. One of them made a gesture as if pointing his gun at me. I challenged him to shoot me if he was going to do it, but it didn’t go any further, ”she adds.
? URGENT| Carlos Pavón, father of Richard Pavón, murdered in the 2018 protests, reported to CENIDH that today between 10:15 and 10:30 am he was the victim of harassment by police officers, one of whom pointed a gun at him while the others recorded with cell phones. pic.twitter.com/kqgXbnVvZi
— Cenidh (@cenidh) February 19, 2022
On Saturday Pavón was upset when a uniformed woman began to record Pavón’s mother with a cell phone. “I asked him why he was recording her, and not me, if I am the terrorist, according to them.” The policewoman only let out an expletive in response.
Pavón assumes that if the siege continues, it is because “on Facebook I ask for freedom for political prisoners, and justice for Nicaragua. As a member of the Mothers of April Association (AMA), we are harassed, assaulted and robbed whenever we hold meetings, but we will continue to seek justice,” she stated.
Siege of exiles
This week, the university student Engel López, who had to go into exile since 2018, denounced that his parents’ home in Jinotepe, in addition to appearing stained with the phrases “lead”, have been visited by representatives of the regime who come to ask for him.
“My father says that he did not recognize the people who came to ask for me, because they were people who were not from the area. They do all of this to generate fear and a sense of uncertainty,” he laments.
López insists that these types of acts are intended to silence critical voices “because they want no one to even be able to protest on social media.”
“The truth is that I feel that there is a group of people who hate me, when I was protesting in Carazo, also because I am still protesting virtually and in person in Sweden,” he explains.
Professor detained in Chontales
The sieges also continued in Chontales, when National Police agents captured Professor Candelario Zamorán Jirón.
This Saturday afternoon, Professor Zamorán was arrested in the city of Juigalpa, to where he had traveled by motorcycle with his wife, to then go to Camoapa, where they would attend a religious act in memory of a deceased person.
The sources asked to omit the name of Professor Zamorán’s spouse.
According to the story that the wife made to the lawyer Ivania Villanueva, local coordinator of the organization ‘Defensores del Pueblo’, the couple stopped at a workshop in Juigalpa to check the motorcycle.
While his wife was inside the workshop, Zamorán was detained by police agents and put into a van, where they beat him while he shouted “Long live Nicaragua Libre!”
#Update | Professor Candelario Zamorán has been illegally detained since 2:00 pm yesterday at the Juigalpa police station. His family has not been able to see him, nor have they been told why he was detained.#SOSNicaragua #Freedom for political prisoners #Liberty #FreedomNow pic.twitter.com/S5QDnXnKvP
– Nicaraguan Civic Alliance (@AlianzaCivicaNi) February 20, 2022
Overcoming the initial impression, the wife went to the police unit to ask about her husband, but when they arrived at the place they responded rudely that he was not detained, and “that he was not making things up,” Villanueva said.
The reaction of the community, together with Professor Zamorán’s family, is to collect signatures to deliver them to the local vicariate, in the hope that it will help to manage his freedom, while the lawyer is filing a complaint to present it to the Ombudsman.
At the time of writing this note, the wife was still in Juigalpa, trying to obtain freedom (or at least information) about Professor Zamorán.
