Until the beginning of May of this year, at least 46 Nicaraguans were still in the prisons of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship for political reasons, although the number may be higher, indicates the most recent report of the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners of Nicaragua.
The report, released this Wednesday, details that in the month of March the number of political prisoners reached 36. But 10 more were added, captured in April, for a total of 46. This number includes the 10 political prisoners who have been imprisoned since before the protests of April 2018 (case of July 19).
All the people imprisoned in April were arbitrarily detained “in the framework of the repressive escalation for the Holy Week celebrations, and the commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the April 2018 rebellion,” the document indicates.
mass arrests
The Mechanism indicates that between April 1 and May 7, 2023, the dictatorship carried out 91 arrests in different departments of the country. Of those arrested in that period, 17 have been released and six were expelled from the country, including a 17-year-old teenager. The rest keep “signing” in the courts.
The largest wave of arrests was recorded on May 3, when the dictatorship ordered a nationwide operation in which 55 arrests of opponents, journalists, and activists were carried out.
“It was an operation of great magnitude and precision, which required the simultaneous coordination of the Police, the Public Ministry and the Judiciary, as well as parastatal structures that operate at the territorial level,” the report details.
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The monitoring body for the situation of political prisoners in the country explains that, of the total number of detainees in the period analyzed, at least 15 do not have information on the detention center or jail where they are located.
The organization warns that, during the last repressive escalation, “a new pattern of criminalization that violates all legal processes of citizenship” has been identified, whose main objective is “to dismantle any effort to organize the population.”
