A group of relatives of imprisoned politicians in Nicaragua denounced this Wednesday “abuses of power” by the authorities of the prison known as the Chipotein Managua, where they are prisoners a diverse group of opponents to the government of President Daniel Ortega.
During the last visit that the prisoners received, between November 19 and 20, after almost three months of isolation, the relatives assured in a statement that most of them -men, women and the elderly- were subjected to exhaustive checks, ” denigrating, violating our physical integrity and privacy.”
They denounced that they were stripped naked and forced to do squats when entering the Chipote, to later “become victims of demeaning and mocking comments about the nakedness of our bodies.”
“We were forced to undress, do squats, to later be victims of degrading comments,” they said in the note.
The Voice of America contacted the government of President Daniel Ortega requesting a response to the accusations, however, at the time of publication of this article, there is still no reference to the complaint by the relatives of the prisoners. On other occasions, the administration has branded detained opponents as “sons of bitches” and “criminals.”
The ruling party has also stated that the prisoners are in adequate conditions.
“The world was shown that the alleged violation of their rights does not exist,” congressman Wilfredo Navarro told official media at the beginning of September, after will appear in public to political prisoners.
Among the inmates in the Chipote prison are peasant leaders, university students, former foreign ministers, as well as six presidential hopefuls who tried to challenge Ortega for power in 2021.
According to their relatives, most of the political prisoners remain in serious situations of isolation and “torture”, with irregular visitation permits.
“We urgently demand the regularization of visits, with the presence of minor children… the arbitrary policy of not bringing in reading and writing material is maintained and their situation of isolation has worsened,” the families lamented.
The UN without access to Nicaragua
While this complaint is being made, the United Nations subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture regretted that Nicaragua has refused to receive a visit to the country, according to a release also released on Wednesday.
“This is the first time we have encountered such a widespread refusal to cooperate,” said committee chair Suzanne Jabbour.
The arrests of opponents have occurred in the framework of the political crisis that the Central American country has been experiencing since 2018. All the opponents detained in 2021 have been convicted in trials branded by the United States as a “judicial farce”.
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