The Daniel Ortega regime resumed family visits this weekend for political prisoners held at the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, known as “El Nuevo Chipote”, in Managua, after continuous urgent calls from families asking for “proof of life » Of the detainees whom they had not seen for 84 days.
Relatives of several political prisoners confirmed to Article 66 that the visits began this Saturday, November 19, and will continue on Sunday the 20th. A first group of relatives was notified on Friday night, the day before the visit. A second group received the call this morning to visit their detained relative on Sunday. Others are awaiting confirmation.
The last time the union leaders were seen was between August 26 and 28. Back then, sports journalist Miguel Mendoza announced that he would go on a hunger strike in protest to get to see his eight-year-old daughter. The dictatorship has not allowed any type of communication between father and daughter since June 2021, when it ordered the arbitrary arrest of Mendoza. The chronicler may be visited this day for the eleventh time in more than a year of confinement.
Human rights organizations and relatives of political prisoners have denounced that the prolonged solitary confinement to which the prisoners are subjected constitutes a mechanism of torture, “mainly due to the severe psychological and emotional damage.”
“We fear for their lives and for the inhumane conditions in which they are kept,” the families stated in a statement issued four days ago. In it, they reiterated their demand to have visits every 15 days as required by law, “with the presence and participation of minor sons and daughters and/or with special needs; as well as access to telephone calls, video calls and correspondence such as photographs, drawings and letters, which include family members abroad.
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According to the organization of Political Prisoners of Nicaragua, as of September the regime kept 50 people imprisoned in “El Chipote” of the 209 captives until that month. The number of political prisoners would have increased at the gates of the disputed municipal elections, held on November 6, due to the arbitrary detention of more than 60 opponentsof which 41 remain in prison, indicated the Nunca Más Nicaragua Human Rights Collective.
the ex-priest Edgar Parrales, who is under house arrest, turned 80 on Wednesday, being the longest-serving political prisoner in Nicaragua. In recent weeks, the regime decided to return former Foreign Minister Francisco Aguirre Sacasa, 76, and former Cosep president José Adán Aguerri, 60, to the “El Chipote” prisons, without any justification.
