Relatives of political prisoners and the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) denounced the beating and psychological torture suffered in the National Penitentiary System (SPN), Jorge Navarro, known as “La Modelo” prisoners of conscience, Steven Mendoza, Bryan Kesler Alemán and Kevin Solis.
Elizabeth González, Mendoza’s wife, says that she found out from other inmates that he was beaten by prison guards on January 13, after a family visit. He also says that he himself told him that day about the constant harassment he suffers from the “La Modelo” staff.
“We went to the family visit in the morning and when it was about to end they insisted that we sign the document that says that our prisoners are fine, that they have not been beaten, that they receive medical attention and their food. All that we know is a lie, because they have returned food to me and I know that they do not give him all his medicines. This was the fourth visit in which we did not sign anything”, he details.
González affirms that “this was the charm” and that in retaliation for refusing to sign that document, other political prisoners told their relatives on the afternoon of that same day of the visit that they had beaten her husband and other political prisoners.
“They were beaten in their private parts, in the arms, legs, back, they even kicked them in the face, all with the brutality with which political prisoners are treated,” he denounces.
“They live an ordeal”
The wife of the political prisoner mentions that until next February 26 she has another visit, but she has tried to find out more about her husband’s condition.
“My husband lives through constant torture, I ask the government to put its hands on its conscience, to stop doing so much harm to political prisoners, as well as to the Nicaraguan people. We are not going to shut up, nor are we going to give up demanding their freedom,” he says.
She also comments that her husband has presented fever, cough, flu, dizziness, vomiting and skin rashes. “They do not provide him with medical care and we are going to continue denouncing that,” he insists.
Mendoza, originally from Masaya, was captured in Rivas on March 5, 2020, accused of the alleged crime of drug trafficking, after returning from exile in Costa Rica.
“He came back because I was a month away from giving birth, when he was captured. He couldn’t even meet the girl until she was seven months old,” he says.
Hansi Alemán, the sister of Bryan Kesler Alemán, says that every day two jailers with the surnames Téllez and Tablada “come into his cell every day to tell him things that harm him psychologically.”
“They live by threatening to put drugs on him and accuse him of an internal crime. In addition, this time they beat him viciously, just because we refused to sign the document in which they want to pretend that everything is fine with them,” he says.
Alemán was arrested on August 14, 2020, accused of drug trafficking.
Unvented cells
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) warned that the life of political prisoner and university student Kevin Solís is at “risk” due to the physical and psychological torture he suffers in “La Modelo.”
They recalled that the young student leader actively participated in the 2018 protests and is confined in an isolation cell known as “El Infiernillo”. Solís participated in the protests from the campus of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN–Managua). Also, that he was one of the students who took refuge in the Divina Misericordia church, on July 14, 2018, before the attack of police and paramilitary forces.
Solís was kidnapped on February 6, 2020, outside the Central American University (UCA). The kidnapping occurred after supporters of Daniel Ortega’s regime circulated his photograph with the caption “wanted” for his participation in student protests.
? Kevin Solís’ life is at risk, he suffers physical and psychological torture. He is in the maximum security pavilion of La Modelo known as 300, in an isolation cell called the Infiernillo. WE DEMAND YOUR IMMEDIATE FREEDOM.#Freedom for political prisoners pic.twitter.com/z1ma7sKWmK
— Cenidh (@cenidh) January 17, 2022
The Ortega justice sentenced Solís to five years and six months in prison for committing the alleged crime of aggravated robbery to the detriment of an Ortega supporter who infiltrated a protest that UCA university students carried out.
His family has denounced that the cell where the young man is located does not have ventilation, he remains in total isolation, has no communication with other people, does not allow him to receive sun, or make phone calls.
“He is a victim of torture. His emotional condition is serious. He has suffered from the flu, recurring headaches and loss of sleep, ”the human rights organization denounced on its Twitter account.
In February 2020, When he was imprisoned in Chipote, the relatives of the university student denounced to the media that the young man is tortured by officers from the Judicial Assistance Directorate (DAJ), specifically by “commissioner Pacheco”, who took him out of his cell because of the early mornings to wet it with a pressure hose.
