The family of the peasant leader and political prisoner Medardo Mairena blames the regime of Daniel Ortega for the “physical deterioration” of the opponent, a situation that was evidenced in the images released this August 30 by official media. The prisoner of conscience was taken this Tuesday morning to the Managua courts. He had not been seen since his arrest in July 2021.
“We hold the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship responsible for the physical and psychological deterioration of our brother Medardo Mairena. Release him now!”, denounced the relatives of the prisoner of conscience through the Facebook account Medardo Mairena Sequeira.
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After 421 days of confinement in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ) in Managua, the Ortega Police first showed the former presidential hopeful. Mairena looks thin, pale and with bags under her eyes. Since his arrest he has been confined to a punishment cell.
For his part, Alfredo Mairena, brother of the opponent, told Article 66 that since the second kidnapping Medardo has lost 74 pounds “and the only thing I can say is that the dictatorship is starving him.”
«It was impressive to see the physical condition in which Medardo is. When I looked at his face I did not know him, he is practically disappearing », added the brother of the political hostage.
He emphasized that Medardo Mairena’s life is at risk “because in addition to the deterioration of his physical condition, he has had permanent health problems, which he did not have when he was kidnapped for the second time.”
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«Medardo needs specialized medical care; he needs a proper diet so that he can improve his state of health », demanded Mairena, also recalling that his brother has problems in one of his knees for which they gave him some medicine without having previously carried out tests or studies.
After seeing the evidence of the deterioration in Mairena’s physical condition, her brother pointed out that no person deprived of their liberty should be subjected to this type of torture. “Even criminals have rights, and my brother who is innocent is kidnapped and suffering for denouncing the injustices of this dictatorship.”
“We demand the immediate release of Medardo, because he has not committed any crime (…) The dictatorship is afraid of the leaders and opponents and locks them up so they can live happily in their dictatorship,” he concluded.
Recently, the relatives of Medardo Mairena were able to see the prisoner of conscience during visit number 10 in prison and found that the opponent remains “in a punishment cell with little air circulation.”
The hostage of conscience was imprisoned for the second time by the Ortega regime on July 5, 2021. This time they charged him with “treason against the fatherland”, condemning him to 13 years in prison.