Political prisoner Jerling Uriel Cruz Ortiz, 20, was tortured at around 5:00 am on June 10 by an official from the Waswalí Regional Penitentiary System, Matagalpa, they confirmed to CONFIDENTIAL sources close to the prisoner of conscience. The fact adds to a series of complaints of ttorture, ill-treatment and threats, carried out by officials of that prison during the first half of 2022.
“He was eating with the other prisoners and a guard came, slapped him on the shoulder, Jerling called him out, told him he was not doing anything and the man picked him up, took him aside and beat him severely,” the source indicated.
CONFIDENCIAL learned, through information leaked by a common prisoner, that the guard hit Cruz several times in the chest and forced him to do 100 squats, while he ate “the lollipop”, food provided by the prison and that those incarcerated are responsible for. cooking.
“So strong was the beating that his crying was heard by the other prisoners,” explained the common prisoner.
In addition, he pointed out that Cruz Ortiz has suffered reprisals since last April, when the political prisoners of the Waswalí Prison declared a hunger strike, publicly announced in a video in which the political prisoner Manuel Urbina Lara appears, who was transferred in reprisal and later to that protest to the Jorge Navarro Penitence System, known as “La Modelo”.
“He (Jerling) was moved to another cell after the hunger strike, since then there have been reprisals, and now it is not known what conditions he is in, or the aftermath that the new beating left him,” he said.
The Blue and White National Monitoring also denounced the beating suffered by Cruz and demanded “respect for his physical integrity and immediate release for all political prisoners.”
? We denounce that political prisoner Jerling Cruz was savagely beaten by officials from the Waswali prison system, Matagalpa. We demand respect for his physical integrity and the release of all political prisoners. #SOSNicaragua #FreedomYA #ExistsRecord pic.twitter.com/KnWb09HAs6
— Blue and White Monitoring (@AzulyMonitoreo) June 11, 2022
The beating against Cruz Ortiz is added to a series of complaints of mistreatment and torture carried out by officials of the Waswalí Prison against political prisoners. In April and May, according to reports from CONFIDENTIALothers three prisoners of conscience were beaten, isolated and threatened by officials of that prison, after they participated in the hunger strike in which they rejected precisely the cruel and inhuman treatment of those who are victims in that prison.
CONFIDENTIAL He learned at that time that the political prisoners who were beaten were Emiliano Zeledón, and the Dorling brothers and Oliver Montenegro.
Nicaraguan political and human rights organizations demanded an end to torture and mistreatment of prisoners of conscience. Currently, the regime keeps more than 180 people locked up for political reasons in the different prisons of the country.
