The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo presented for the first time the four political prisoners who, for more than 14 months, have been kept isolated and in solitary confinement in the cells of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, known as El Chipote. Official media showed photographs of the prisoners Dora María Téllez, Ana Margarita Vijil, Tamara Dávila and Suyen Barahona, members of the Renovating Democratic Union (Unamos). Prisoners of conscience were also exhibited: Félix Maradiaga, former presidential candidate; Juan Lorenzo Holmann, general manager of La Prensa; Luis Rivas Anduray, former general manager of Banpro; Álvaro Vargas, former vice president of Cosep; the sociologist and economist, Irving Larios; and the lawyer Róger Reyes.
?? #URGENT | Police present political prisoners @SuyenB1, @DoraMTellez Y @anavijil after more than a year of confinement in the cells of El Chipote ➡ https://t.co/J6IpwrPe9v pic.twitter.com/sZEKbo2RHU
— Confidential Nicaragua (@confidencial_ni) August 31, 2022
The presentation takes place a day after ten political prisoners —also held in El Chipote— were exhibited in the courts of Managua, where supposedly they would hold “informative hearings”legal figure that does not exist in the Criminal Procedure Code of Nicaragua.
The dictatorship maintains more than 190 political prisoners, of these 18 are women: seven are in the different prison systems of the country, six in El Chipote, two under the house arrest system and three of whom there is no information on where. are detained, according to hemerographic data and lists of the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners consulted by CONFIDENTIAL.
In El Chipote, in addition to the four members of Unamos, the regime has detained Violet barnof the Blue and White National Unity (UNAB), and Mary Oviedo, lawyer and defender of human rights. Both have not been presented.
Among those detained in Nicaraguan prisons, mainly in the La Esperanza Penitentiary System, in Tipitapa, are: Eveling Russia Pinto Centeno, Karla Vanessa Escobar Maldonado, Julia Christina Hernández Arévalo, Cinthia Samantha Padilla Jirón, María Esperanza Sánchez García and Nidia Lorena Barbosa Castillo. .
Under the house arrest regime are Cristiana Chamorro Barrios, former presidential candidate, and former president of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation (FVBCh), and María Fernanda Flores, former deputy and wife of former President Arnoldo Alemán.
Of both political prisoners, the Ortega regime leaked, last April, some photographs in which they appear guarded by officials of the Judicial Assistance Directorate in their homes, where they have remained for more than a year.
Show them!
The exhibition of the ten political prisoners motivated, in social networks, the pronouncement of organizations and relatives of the political prisoners who demanded to know the status of those detained in El Chipote.
Unamos —formerly the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS)— demanded through its social networks that the regime publicly present its four leaders and the other two areas of conscience: Granera, leader of the Blue and White National Unity (UNAB), and Oviedo, lawyer and human rights defender.
“We demand that the regime present the women who are detained in El Chipote as political prisoners. We want to see them. We want to know how they are,” the organization wrote.
Colleagues, friends and people close to the political prisoners, who are part of the Be Humane campaign, also advocated showing the six women that the Ortega regime keeps in El Chipote.
Today, the regime #Nicaragua showed some political prisoners, evidencing the poor state in which they are inside the prison in serious conditions of #torturebut we wonder.
Where are the political prisoners?#Be human #ShowThemNow pic.twitter.com/NOeXptndkx
— SeHumanoNicaragua (@SeHumanoNic) August 30, 2022
“The Nicaraguan regime showed some political prisoners, evidencing the poor state in which they are in prison, in serious conditions of torture, but we ask ourselves, where are the political prisoners?”, they questioned through social networks of Be Human.
Suyen Barahona without seeing her son
César Dubois, husband of Suyen Barahona, denounced that he and his six-year-old son, who are out of the country due to persecution by the regime, have not been able to see their relative for more than 400 days, despite the fact that they have repeatedly requested occasions that they are allowed some type of communication, by telephone or by correspondence, through letters, photos or drawings.
“Our son has 443 days today without seeing or hearing his mother. Suyen has not even been allowed a photo of his son. We hope that at least in one photo our son can see his mother. Likewise, they should show all the rest of the political prisoners”, he demanded.
Barahona has been isolated and under solitary confinement since she was captured on June 13, 2021. The Ortega justice found her guilty of allegedly committing “undermining national integrity” and sentenced her to eight years in prison.
Suyen’s relatives have rejected the Ortega accusations and have denounced that these more than 14 months of confinement in inhuman conditions and with precarious food rations have affected his health, causing him to lose more than 30 pounds of his weight, problems in the skin and body aches.
Tamara Dávila isolated alone in a cell with bars
Relatives of Tamara Dávila denounced, on July 11, through a spoken portrait, disclosed in the Be Humano campaign, the physical deterioration suffered by the prisoner of conscience, due to the inhumane conditions she suffers in El Chipote, where she has been imprisoned since on June 12, 2021.
Dávila was sentenced on March 3 to eight years in prison for allegedly “conspiring to undermine national integrity.”
The political prisoner, according to the complaint of her relatives, has lost more than 40 pounds in all this time of confinement and, recently, she was transferred from the bolted cell in which she was to one of bars, where she continues “isolated, incommunicado and alone, and without receiving adequate medical care.”
Dávila was forced to remain isolated and incommunicado with her six-year-old daughter for more than 14 months. She was only able to see her once, on August 18, after she pressed the regime’s authorization, going on a hunger strike that she maintained for five days.
Ana Margarita Vijil and Dora M. Téllez, imprisoned since June 2021
The political prisoners Vijil, former president of Unamos, and Téllez, former Sandinista guerrilla and founder of the MRS, have been detained in El Chipote since June 13, 2021.
Téllez and Vijil were sentenced —in separate trials held behind closed doors in El Chipote— to eight and ten years in prison, respectively, for allegedly “conspiring to undermine national integrity to the detriment of the Nicaraguan State and Nicaraguan society.” .
On July 19, Téllez’s family released a spoken portrait, through the Be Humano campaign, in which they revealed an approximation of the physical deterioration that the area of conscience has as a result of the confinement in El Chipote.
“She looks very thin, aged, completely pale, her skin is almost translucent, you can even see her veins. She has lost about 16 pounds in weight and prior to her arrest she did not suffer from any chronic disease. Today her life is in danger, “they warned.
Vijil’s family has also denounced the deterioration of his relative and pointed out that he has lost more than ten pounds of weight.
In May, Pinita Gurdián, Vijil’s mother, stated that her daughter was “ever thinner” and that all the political prisoners in El Chipote “suffer from hunger.”
