Associations of relatives of political prisoners launched this Monday “a cry of alert” for the deterioration of the health of their relatives, who, they assure, “are at risk of death” due to the terrible conditions in which they are locked up and the “negligence ” of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo that denies them the required medical attention.
After the death of the retired general and political prisoner, Hugo Torres Jiménez, who was in the custody of the Nicaraguan State, the relatives of the prisoners of conscience expressed the “immense anguish and concern” caused by knowing that their relatives are at the mercy of the same regime that captured them “arbitrarily” and that does not respect their human rights.
“We address the people of Nicaragua, the Church, the International Committee of the Red Cross, human rights organizations and mechanisms, and the international community, with immense anguish and concern; because due to the lack of timely and pertinent medical care, we believe that the life and physical and emotional integrity of our family members imprisoned in the different dependencies of the National Penitentiary System (SPN) and the “El Nuevo Chipote” Judicial Assistance Directorate is in danger. very serious danger,” the relatives denounced in a statement.
In “El Chipote” and in the prisons of the SPN, “several of our relatives suffer chronic diseases, such as hypertension, bradycardia, Parkinson’s, diabetes and cancer”, says the document read by the relatives of the inmates. They assure that “for months they have not received specialized medical attention, and for this reason at different times they have suffered from dizziness, fainting and decompensation. Some of our relatives are older adults, who are not receiving the necessary care and attention,” they add.
In addition, the relatives point out, “we have documented ailments that began to manifest themselves since they were under the custody and tutelage of the Nicaraguan State, such as psychological effects, due to the precarious and inhuman conditions of imprisonment in which they are found, breaching the rules and minimum prison standards consistent with human rights, isolation and incommunicado detention for prolonged periods, and lack of access to adequate and timely health care.”
demand immediate release
In the statement, the Victims of April Organization (OVA), the United Political Kidnapped Group (GSPU), the Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners (AFPP), the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners and Prisoners (CPPP) and the Relatives of Political Prisoners in El Chipote since May 2021, they also demand the “immediate release” of political prisoners.
“Given this alarming situation, and the serious precedent that the recent tragic events represent, we demand that the State that has our family members under guardianship, and therefore is responsible for their well-being and life, the immediate and unconditional release with guarantees of all political prisoners, because they are innocent and should never have been arbitrarily detained,” they urged.
In the document, the families also advocated for the “political prisoners” who are in the “La Modelo” prison in Tipitapa, where “they are in a serious state of health, suffering from a dry cough, flu symptoms, fever, pain in the bones and headache, vomiting and diarrhoea”.
In addition, they expressed solidarity with the family of Hugo Torres, who was one of the most daring Sandinista guerrillas in the fight against the Anastasio Somoza Debayle dictatorship, and who helped rescue Ortega from prison in 1974.
Torres, who was vice president of the Unión Democrática Renovadora Unamos (Unamos, formerly MRS), is the second political prisoner to die while under the tutelage of the Nicaraguan state. Before that, it was the political prisoner Eddy Montes, murdered in the “La Modelo” prison, in May 2019. In addition, the political prisoner Justo Rodríguez, from the island of Ometepe, was released from prison as a fully quadriplegic in December 2020.
“A terrible humanitarian crisis”
Grethel Gómez, from the Victims of April Organization (OVA), stressed that the relatives of prisoners politicians are going through “a terrible humanitarian crisis”, since some of the inmates have been imprisoned for more than two years and they no longer “have money to be taking medicines” to the prison system and “the little they take to their relatives is not always give”.
Also Ana Lucía Álvarez, sister and niece of the political prisoners Tamara Dávila and Ana Margarita Vijil, stressed that “this is a cry of alert” from the relatives of prisoners of conscience because, she recalled, “under the tutelage of the State they killed Eddy Montes, Hugo Torres died, and we don’t know if our relatives are going to be handed over to us in a coffin.”
Similarly, Victoria Cárdenas, wife of political prisoner Juan Sebastián Chamorro, shared her concern for her imprisoned relatives — whom they have not seen for 25 days — and who are being tried and sentenced for crimes of treason against the country without even being able to defend himself.
