Political prisoners Walter Antonio Gómez and Marco Antonio Fletes, both former administrative workers of the defunct Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation (FVBCH), have been detained for 615 days on February 2 in the cells of the Evaristo Vásquez Police Complex, known as “El Nuevo Chipote”. , designated as a center of torture for opponents.
Both were arrested and held hostage by the dictatorship for having worked for several years with the then presidential candidate Cristiana Chamorro, who was positioned as the favorite to win the Presidency against the ruling couple. The Ortega court accused them of the alleged crime of laundering money, goods and assets; and misappropriation and retention; abusive management and ideological falsehood.
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The trial against the citizens was riddled with irregularities and annulments, according to complaints from their defenders. In the process, a series of witnesses such as police officers and journalists paraded. The accusation was based on the support that the organization gave for several years to the independent media.
The former workers of the FVBCH, Walter Gómez and Marco Fletes, were exhibited by the Ortega Murillo dictatorship for the first time, after 15 months in prison, on September 30, before the propaganda media of the presidential family. In said act, which took place in the Managua courts, they looked unrecognizable, emaciated and thin due to the inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment to which they are subjected on a daily basis.
In the accusatory libel, Fletes and Gómez, accountant and administrator respectively, are pointed out to request third parties to cash Foundation checks.
The judicial process against him began on March 3 and ended on March 11, it was held at the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, in Managua, known as “El Chipote”, where 27 other hostages of conscience are also being held captive. Judge Luden Martín Quiroz, of the Ninth Criminal Trial District Court of Managua, was in charge of sentencing Gómez and Fletes to 13 years in prison for each one.
Human rights defenders and international organizations have demanded the freedom of both citizens, at the same time that they have described their imprisonment as “illegal” due to the lack of guarantees in the process. In addition, the US State Department noted that they were detained because Ortega considers “any connection to democratic values tantamount to a threat to his power.”
