Relatives of opposition leader Suyen Barahonaimprisoned for 15 months for crimes considered “treason against the homeland”, asked the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo this Thursday to allow at least one phone call with her five-year-old son, with whom she has not had any contact from June 2021.
“We ask the Government of Nicaragua to allow them to communicate,” advocated César Dubois, Barahona’s husband, president of the Democratic Renovating Union (Unamos), formerly called the Sandinista Renovating Movement (MRS), which was originally born as a split from the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).
More than a year ago Suyen was imprisoned and since then her son lives with his father outside of Nicaragua. Until today they have not been allowed to communicate with her. We ask that they be granted at least #ACallForSuyen pic.twitter.com/KKUKIjzHLQ
– Suyen Barahona (@ SuyenB1) September 22, 2022
In a recorded audio, the husband of the political prisoner said that for a child under five, growing up far from his mother, “is torture” for both the child and the parent.
“No one should have to deal with the pain and confusion of being a child who can’t see or hear their mom. Suyen has every right to listen. to his son and receive drawings or letters from his little one”, he argued.
“She knows her rights and the only thing she wants is a call with the little boy, who also asks about his mother every day, who is confined in the El Chipote prison,” officially known as the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, located south of Managua, indicated the family, who demanded from the Government “a mother-son communication as soon as possible.”
In this sense, they argued that this communication “is a fundamental right of every prisoner, also set forth in the United Nations Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, better known as Nelson Mandela.”
Emotional health of the minor
In addition, they urged the Government to comply with the obligation to ensure the child’s emotional health, “in deterioration due to the impossibility of interacting with her since she was arbitrarily arrested.”
According to the family, Barahona, 45, has lost a lot of weight and has not been entitled to phone calls for more than a year.
Last February, after eight months in prison, the president of Unamos was sentenced to eight years in prison after being found guilty of the crime of undermining national integrity to the detriment of the Nicaraguan State and society.
Barahona belongs to a list of more than 200 Nicaraguans considered political prisoners of President Ortega, among whom are opposition leaders, students, peasants, businessmen, journalists and independent professionals, including seven dissidents who aspired to compete for the Presidency in the general elections. last November.
The opponents, arrested between May and November 2021, were sentenced to between seven and thirteen years in prison for crimes considered “treason against the fatherland” or money laundering, in the context of the socio-political crisis that Nicaragua has been experiencing since April of 2018.
