The president of the Inter-American Press Association (SIP), Michael Greenspon, defended this Tuesday the need to redouble efforts in 2023 in favor of the safety of journalists, respect for press freedom and greater access to public information.
“2022 will go down in history as one of the most violent years for the press in the Americas. Forty-two journalists were killed in 10 countries,” Greenspon said in a message at the end of the year in which he reviews what happened in 2022 and the challenges for 2023, which, he says, “will be many.”
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In addition to the murders and attacks, he mentioned the exile of 29 communicators due to political persecution and the imprisonment of another 15, including two members of the IAPA Board of Directors, Juan Lorenzo Holmann, in Nicaragua, and José Rubén Zamora, in Guatemala.
The daughters of the political prisoner and general manager of the newspaper La Prensa, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorrothey demanded from the administration of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo a phone call with their father, with whom they have not had any kind of communication since last August 14, 2021, when he was arbitrarily detained by the Ortega Police.
“For more than 500 days I have not had any contact with my father Juan Lorenzo Holmann detained in El Chipote, we have not been allowed a single call or send or receive letters,” said Renata Holmann in a video posted on the account from Twitter Ortega’s hostage.
Likewise, another of the daughters of the political prisoner highlighted that “at this time of year the whole family usually gathers together and we have felt a lot of emptiness and the absence of my father, for this reason we ask that our right to have a call with We miss him a lot.”
Related news: Daughters of Juan Lorenzo Holmann demand a call from Ortega with their father
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures to the Nicaraguan sociologist and economist Oscar Rene Vargas, This was announced this Wednesday, December 28, by the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), which processed these measures.
The agency explained that precautionary measures MC 991-22 to the new political prisoner of the Ortega regime were granted for “considering that he is in a serious and urgent situation.”
The IACHR requested the Government of Nicaragua to inform within a period of 15 days “counted from the day following the notification of the resolution” on the adoption of the required precautionary measures, and to update said information periodically.
Monsignor Silvio Baez, auxiliary bishop of Managua, recalled the Day of the Innocents, which is commemorated every December 28, the date on which the massacre of children under two years of age took place in Bethlehem, ordered by King Herod, in order to assassinate Jesus of Nazareth, which according to the Christian religion was December 25.
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Alluding to that event, Báez recalled that «Herod became terribly enraged and sent to kill all the children of Bethlehem. Ambitious and thirsty for power, he is afraid and orders to kill ».
Referring to the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, accused of crimes against humanity against Nicaraguans, the prelate compared Herod’s actions with those of “today’s tyrants who impose themselves by repressing, imprisoning or killing.”
An eight-year-old boy, originally from Nicaragua, died a victim of hypothermia and suffocation by submersion, when he tried to cross the Rio Grande with his parents, as reported by the media Plinth.
Related news: Eight-year-old Nicaraguan boy drowned in the Rio Grande
It was known that the body of the child was dragged by the current. After several minutes of searching, his body was located by immigration agents, with the support of the Fire Department.
Sheriff Tom Schmerber, a member of the border patrol, reported that the minor was part of a group of migrants who crossed on Saturday, December 24, near the international bridge number 2 in Eagle Pass, Texas.
