A year and thirteen days have passed since the farmer Jhovanny Tenorio He disappeared. His family has searched for him in the streets of his native Matagalpa, in the north of Nicaragua; They asked about him in different penitentiary centers in the country, they went to the hospital morgue, but there is no record of him and no one has seen him since May 2, 2021, when he was detained at the La Aurora hacienda by four civilians. armed men, who identified themselves as police officers.
At the Matagalpa police station —where Jhovanny would supposedly be transferred by the individuals who took him away— they told his relatives that he has never been detained, but they refuse to investigate his disappearance. The two times that they have tried to file a formal complaint, they were questioned by the officers about their participation in the protests against the Government of Daniel Ortega in 2018 and it is not known that they have initiated an investigation.
“We don’t know anything about him, if he’s alive or if he’s dead,” warns Claudia Tenorio, Jhovanny’s sister. The Police “do not give information to my family”, who constantly go to the Matagalpa police station to ask about the case, and on some occasions, when they manage to exchange words, “they deny that they have him detained, but they do not investigate either”, claimed.
The disappearance of Jhovanny was considered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) as a “serious” and “urgent” situation, so on June 13, 2021 it granted him precautionary measures and asked the Government of Nicaragua to report if he is in custody of the State. Otherwise, the Commission stated, “adopt the measures aimed at determining his whereabouts.” Eleven months later, none of that has come to pass.
“A lawyer was handling the case. She was traveling from Managua to Matagalpa, but she had to go into exile because she received threats”, relates Claudia, also from exile. “The day the lawyer accompanied my sister to file the second complaint —because a long time had passed and the Police did not react— they put her in an office and questioned her a lot. After that, she told me that she was going into exile because she also has a brother who is in prison,” she stressed.
Jhovanny’s disappearance occurred at a time when the Ortega regime intensified its repression, due to the context of the 2021 general elections. Presidential candidates, union leaders, human rights defenders, and journalists were arrested and held incommunicado for several months. This situation led Jhovanny’s family to believe that he —perhaps— was detained; however, in the judicial system there is no complaint against him and his relative still does not appear.
LThe repression and government massacre —which caused the death of at least 355 people between April 2018 and June 2019, according to data from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)— has also led to the imprisonment of a thousand political prisoners , of which more than 180 remain in prison; the exile of some 100,000 Nicaraguans, the establishment of a de facto police state and hundreds of crimes in total impunity.
a worn out family
The relentless search and the uncertainty of not knowing anything about Jhovanny has affected the health of his mother, Angélica Rizo, and his father, Claudio Tenorio Ruiz. TheyThey are elderly and all their ailments have skyrocketed because they have not heard from my brother,” Claudia said.
Jhovanny, 32, was a farmer and his relatives describe him as a hard-working and honest man. Therefore, they point out that his disappearance could be a political reprisal, since he participated in some demonstrations in 2018 and his sister Claudia had a more active participation and is currently in exile.
The family has also indicated that, prior to the “kidnapping”, Jhovanny was “threatened” by an officer riot police, who is a neighbor of his parents in the Barrio 25 de Abril of Matagalpa. So they associate that fact with his disappearance.
In addition, those who witnessed the “kidnapping” at the La Aurora hacienda described to their relatives that the armed civilians who took him away were “strong people and sure of what they were doing,” for which the family insists that “most likely if They were police.”
The family indicates that, since the kidnapping, they have been harassed and threatened by people close to the government, who have told them they can “burn the ranch.” In this context, Tenorio’s relatives have warned that anything that may happen to them is “the responsibility of the Police and Daniel Ortega’s regime.”
