Two drivers and a photographer from the newspaper La Prensa were arrested on the night of July 6, after covering the expulsion of the Missionaries of Charity. The arrest was confirmed by the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), which described the event as a “limitation of freedom of expression” and demanded the immediate release of the journalistic team.
The digital media Fuentes Confiables revealed that two of those arrested are Carlos Lam and Mario Sánchez, who were arbitrarily removed from their home. In addition, the Expediente Público newspaper reported that the house of the former secretary of the press chief, Eduardo Enríquez, was also raided.
Related news: Ortega police “kidnap” two drivers of La Prensa
A relative narrated that one of the detainees is his father-in-law, who offers his services as a private driver and has never been an activist. Through Twitter, he explained that the driver was taken from his mother’s house in front of his family, brutally and unfairly, and without a court order.
Relatives of political prisoners Felix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastian Chamorro Y Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro They demanded that the Nicaraguan regime cease the “policy of extermination” and allow them to communicate with their relatives as established by the laws of the country.
In a virtual conference, the relatives detailed that the inmates continue to be isolated, in inhuman conditions, without medical attention, poorly fed and with ailments that they have developed in prison.
They presented spoken portraits of Juan Lorenzo Holmann and Juan Sebastián Chamorro that show their physical deterioration and asked the regime to authorize them to enter the prisons to verify the state of health of the prisoners.
The international lawyer for Maradiaga and Chamorro, Jared Genser, stated that “the conditions in Nicaragua are among the worst he has seen during his 20-year career, on the subject of human rights,” while Juan Pappier, a researcher at the human rights observatory , Human Rights Watch (HRW), made an urgent call to other countries to increase international scrutiny in this crisis situation.
An International Commission, made up of parliamentarians and left-wing leaders from Argentina, from the Broad Front bloc of Costa Rica, exiles, leaders of human rights organizations, unions and social movements, will march this Friday, July 8, from the Parliament of Costa Rica towards the border with Nicaragua with the aim of demanding access to the prisons from the regime to verify in situ the health conditions and confinement of political prisoners.
The Ortega-Murillo regime will “celebrate” this Friday, July 8, the massacre perpetrated by a contingent of at least 2,000 armed men that killed 38 people in Jinotepe, Carazo, in the context of the 2018 protests.
The spokeswoman Rosario Murillo stated that on that date “it marks another anniversary of the defeat” of the opponents and warned that her regime will not allow another protest, which she calls “coup.”
Murillo took the opportunity to accuse the priests of “using the name of God in vain” during the demonstrations, and celebrated the upcoming inauguration of a supposed center for children in Granada, after the expulsion and appropriation of the home of the Missionaries of the charity.
The dictatorship granted Nicaraguan nationality to the Venezuelan citizen Esther Arrúe Ramírez. The Government indicates that Arrúe arrived in Nicaragua in October 2017 and has remained in the country uninterruptedly. She is married and has blood ties with a Nicaraguan. In her social networks, the nationalized woman presents herself as a surgeon with a specialty in clinical nutrition.
Related news: Father Román calls Ortega a “beast” for expelling the Sisters of Charity
This July 7, the regime also announced the appointment of officials in the Chancellery of the Republic, the Ministry of Agriculture (MAG) and the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism (Intur).
The regime appointed Ivania del Carmen León Rivas as deputy minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Aida Leticia Talavera Aráuz as secretary of ceremonial and protocol of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Yaosca Calderón Martín as co-director of Intur .
