The prisoner of conscience Kevin Zamora suffered facial paralysis, which has left him with the left half of his face immobilized as a consequence, he cannot close the lid of his left eye, his mouth was left open and he has difficulty speaking and eating. However, the authorities of the Jorge Navarro Penitentiary System, known as La Modelo, still do not take him to a hospital, where he can be treated by a specialist, family members of the political prisoner denounce.
“On April 27, two days before he was paralyzed, we saw him, he was fine, but on May 11, when we had another visit, we found him very bad. He told us that on April 29, at about 7:00 pm, he was paralyzed, but that the officials did not take him to a hospital, “said Santos Zamora, father of the political prisoner.
He explained that, in the little that his son was able to say, prison officials only sent “trusted inmates” to Kevin’s cell, channeled him and gave him “vitamins.”
“They didn’t even take him out of the cell to attend to him, they sent other prisoners to attend to him, they asked him to remove his hand, they channeled him and there they gave him some injections that they say are vitamins. Also, they sent us a prescription for some medications and vitamins and they passed, but they did not take him to a hospital, ”he remarked.
He stressed that the “pleading” they have as a family is that “they take him to a hospital, that a specialist see him because he is very ill. He almost couldn’t talk to us, he says that he can hardly eat, we are sad, sorry, bad for being incommunicado until the next visit, not knowing if they already treated him or if he is worse “.
They will use legal means to demand medical attention for Zamora
Santos affirmed that they have contacted his son’s defense attorney to file a brief in the Managua courts, urging specialized medical attention in a hospital.
“We are going to ask them to treat him in a hospital. They (Prison officials) have treated him in their own way, but this requires specialists,” he pointed out.
Kevin Zamora, 20, has been imprisoned in the cells of La Modelo for more than two years. The young man was arrested in September 2019, accused of allegedly manufacturing handmade explosives. The Ortega justice sentenced him to four years in prison, but the family of the prisoner of conscience has denied all accusations.
Santos explained that his son, before being “kidnapped and imprisoned unjustly for crimes he did not commit,” was dedicated “to studying, he was finishing his fifth year of high school on Saturday, he worked to pay for English classes, which he took in a technician, and I attended an evangelical church where I played the piano.”
“We continue to demand freedom, we know that he is innocent, we know that all of what he is accused of is false, but if they are going to have him unjustly locked up there, as they have done so far, at least they allow him to receive attention ”, he highlighted.
In December 2020, Kevin Zamora denounced -through a letter that he managed to leak from the Prison- that he was the object of constant physical and psychological attacks by La Modelo officials. On that occasion, he pointed out that he had been severely beaten and that, as a result, he had sustained injuries to his arm.
The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo keeps more than 180 people imprisoned for political reasons in the different prisons of Nicaragua. In the last three years, there have been constant complaints of mistreatment, torture and deprivation of specialized medical care in the country’s prisons.
Last week, relatives of political prisoners Yoel Sandino and John Cerna, known as “El Tigrillo”, urged specialized medical assistance for their relatives, since, despite the fact that they are beneficiaries of precautionary measuresgranted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), their right to health continues to be violated.
According to reports from CONFIDENTIALSandino urges a neurological evaluation and the performance of an MRI to follow up on a congenital cyst lodged in the right side of his head; and in the case of Cerna requires attention for his allergies, correction of a dislocation in his shoulder that has not been treated for two years and that there be proof in the medicines he receives for the epilepsy he suffers, since he recently had seizures.
