There has been a flurry of activity from the Association of Mothers of Political Prisoners and other opposition groups around trying to promote a “Christmas without Political Prisoners”, something many Sandinista benefitted from during the Somoza regime. The government recently released some 1,000 prisoners from jail, but only 5 were considered political prisoners. LA PRENSA has been publishing short summaries of the situation of the arrest and trials of some 6 political prisoners daily, with the intention of covering all 118 currently in jail. In those accounts several things become clear: many were released as part of the amnesty decreed by the Government in June 2019 and later many were abducted again (i.e. arrested without showing an arrest warrant and without informing them of charges, and then not admitting to the family they are jailed), and charged with common crimes (often related to drug possession). Many who left the country and returned after Ortega announced it was safe for them to return were then abducted in a similar fashion and have ended up in jail.
Constantly the whole process of abduction, filing of charges and trials calls into question the independence of the judicial branch. That is what makes this article important, based on interviews of people inside the Attorney General´s Office.
The Attorney General´s Office: Crime Factory Against Nicaraguan Political Prisoners
In Confidencial by Juan Carlos Bow, Oct 9, 2020
Accusations against the self-convened were created by devoted Orteguista officials who met to work in hotels with all expenses paid.
The Attorney General assigned the most loyal officials of the Ortega regime to manufacture cases and charges against the political prisoners of the dictatorship, while the “puppet” prosecutors signed the charges that they were not even permitted to read, sources inside and outside the Public Prosecutor´s office revealed to CONFIDENCIAL, who confirmed the creation of a specific unit for the criminalization of the citizens who were involved in the April Rebellion.
The cases against the self-convoked citizens were cooked up in the premises of the Specialized Organized Crime Unit (UECDO), located very close to the office of the Attorney General Ana Julio Guido, who since 2014 has openly “orteguized” the Public Prosecutor´s office.
Guido, along with Douglas Roberto Vargas, the inspector general of the Prosecutor´s office, and Javier Antonio Morazán Chavarría, chief prosecutor for the Specialized Organized Crime Unit, after the civic and social explosion of 2018, made up an operational group of prosecutors devoted to Ortega, who were charged with the investigations against the protestors.
This group initially was composed of prosecutors of the UECDO: Giscard Moraga, Félix Hernández, Inés Miranda, Félix Cárcamo and Geisel Reyes Sánchez. All have been recruited by Morazán Chavarría, who has a lowered profile since last year. “Before he would give interviews and it was common to see him in the official media. Now he doesn´t say anything,” stated a prosecutor.
Later prosecutors from other areas were recruited to join this group: Fabiola Mendoza Bustos, prosecutor assigned to special cases from the Office of Judicial Support (DAJ) of the Police of the regime; José Domingo Rojas Taleno, legal advisor to the Attorney General; Julio Bolaños, prosecutor of the Gender Violence Unit; Rolando Zapata Morales, chief prosecutor of the Center for Prosecutorial Assistance of district seven of Managua; Alicia Carolina Solís, chief prosecutor of the Center for Prosecutorial Assistance of district one of Managua; Lenín Castellón, chief prosecutor of the Appeal and Judicial Review Unit; Marisela Rodríguez, auxiliary prosecutor of the Unit for Services for Cases of Noncompliance with Food Support.
In hotel with all expenses paid
“The prosecutors recruited were secretly sent to work in a couple of hotels in Managua, with all expenses paid (lodging, transportation and food). There they met with investigators from the DAJ to fabricate all the files,” explained one of the sources.
These prosecutors were coordinated by Morazán Chavarría; Giselle Tamara Borge, prosecutor responsible for shift supervision in Managua; Lilliam Beatriz Soza, chief prosecutor of Courts; Alejandro López Dávila; provincial prosecutor for Managua, and Sandra Isabel Dinarte Cárcamo, chief prosecutor of the Victim Attention Unit.
Under this model the attributions and competencies of the chief prosecutors from the Centers for Prosecutorial Assistance and provincial prosecutors were suppressed in order to send all cases to the UECDO.
Javier Morazán, Giscard Moraga and Alejandro López would assign the files to the prosecutors recruited to draw up the charges and exchange evidence. There was no specific order for the selection.
The bulk of the work of this group happened between July and October 2018, when the regime illegally detained and accused the leaders and members of the self-convened movement. This period is known as the “third stage of the repression”, according to national and international human rights organizations.
Others had to sign
The prosecutors recruited were the only ones responsible for putting together all the cases against the self-convened. Nevertheless, the signatures on the charges filed belonged to other people. López Dávila, principally, and Giselle Borge – daughter of the general commissioner Fernando Borge, the second chief of Police of the regime in Managua – were the ones responsible for selecting and calling the prosecutors who would have to endorse the accusatory instrument and exchange of evidence.
One prosecutor, who worked in the office of López, mentioned that since the beginning of the protests the provincial prosecutor for Managua spent less time in his office, but he was commonly seen in the offices of the organized crime unit.
“Alejandro would call you to his office, and once there, he would just say to you, “sign this”. He would not give you a chance to read the document. He would force you to sign. Everyone already knew that when he called you, it was to sign an accusation or exchange of evidence,” said a former prosecutor.
-Sign here.
-Let me read it.
-I am not saying to read it, it is just sign it and nothing more.
According to prosecutors and former prosecutors, that was the dialogue that would happen when an official would ask López to read what they were about to sign.
Penal responsibility
The criminal lawyer Nelson Cortez explained that the Attorney General´s office operates under the principle of uniqueness, that means that they see themselves as an institution as one body and all act in representation of the Attorney General. “From that perspective, it doesn´t matter who signs the accusation.” Nevertheless, the Organic Law of the Attorney General´s Office also establishes the principle of objectivity, that obligates each prosecutor to follow the Constitution and law.
Cortez said that the lack of compliance with this principle carries administrative sanctions against the prosecutors, who also would be criminally responsible, in the case of a malicious and ill-intentioned accusation, be that for “being outside legal objectivity or directed by political orientations, as in this case.”
“In a certain way what they (Prosecutors) are ensuring, by making other prosecutors sign, is not be able to establish a direct connection to them as people, in the moment of trying to exact penal responsibility on them, when a change of system happens,” pointed out the criminal lawyer.
Former prosecutors and criminal lawyers coincided in the fact that the prosecutor who signs the accusation is the one with the greater responsibility within the process, which is why in the face of future independent investigations they would be the first ones indicated in committing some crime.
“The prosecutor has been turned into a field hand, who is not asked what they think, and their work is precisely thinking,” annotated a former official of the Attorney General´s Office.
Prisoners of fear
Any prosecutor has the possibility of refusing to sign, even though very few do so. “All the prosecutors are frightened, if you don´t sign, you are put on a black list, there can be labor reprisals or they can accuse you of being a coup supporter. They are prisoners of fear,” commented a former prosecutor.
One functioning prosecutor commented that within the group of signers “there are all types.” Many agree to sign because they are afraid of suffering reprisals on resigning or being fired. “Those who have left, have been threatened that they will not be paid their severance pay because they are terrorists.”
“There was a moment in which the Attorney General´s Office would not accept your resignation because a ton of people had left,” she stressed.
Since the beginning of the crisis last April more than twenty prosecutors resigned for being against the hardening of the Ortega line, even though they alleged personal reasons, according to the former prosecutor. “Others remain in their posts but have to put up with demotions or being under the watch of their Sandinista co-workers,” she added.
Since Guido took her post in April 2014 nearly a hundred officials of the Prosecutor´s Office have resigned because they do not want to be part of the “persecution” against opponents of the regime. Guido, a retired general commissioner, is one of the assiduous participants in the grassroots activities of the FSLN.
There are also prosecutors, even though a minority, who do it convinced that what they are doing is right. “They entered in the first competitive exams for prosecutors in the year 2002 and were pupils of Dr. Julio Centeno Gómez. Now they are red and black prosecutors with Sandinista Youth identity cards,” emphasized the official from the Attorney General´s office.
Attorney General hand in hand with the Police
The drafting of the charges were assigned to the prosecutors based exclusively on the police report that the DAJ sent to the Prosecutor´s Office. All investigations were accepted without further ado, even though the judicial directions to go deeper should be authorized by Guido Ochoa, Douglas Vargas or Javier Morazán, according to sources.
The prosecutors were able to direct the investigators in obtaining evidence: request and validation of raids, occupation of objects and vehicles, searches of places, requests of public institutions, citation of witnesses, requests for expert and forensic analyses.
According to sources, the group of prosecutors recruited who have a line with the DAJ are: Javier Morazán and Giscard Moraga, for their work in the UECDO. On a second level are: Alejandro López, Fabiola Mendoza, Félix Hernández and José Domingo Rojas.
“The prosecutors maintained ongoing contact with the investigators and laboratory and forensic experts to obtain the proof or revision of expert reports, if it was helpful to them to use them,” indicated one of the sources, who added, “They could even discard from the file evidence that favored the accused, because the original file from the Police was supervised by the Prosecutor.”
A former prosecutor of the UECDO pointed out that it is valid that the prosecutors direct the investigations. “What is illegal is that the cases are assembled, that the Public Prosecutor´s Office has not carried out criminal actions against those who wounded the demonstrators. They (prosecutors) whitewash the crimes of people allied with the Government, like the paramilitaries.”
He stressed that many of the charges have no rhyme nor reason; they are poorly drafted tomes,” which cannot be attributed to a lack of knowledge. “The benefit of ignorance cannot be given to these prosecutors because the State has invested a lot of money in their training,” he pointed out.
It was extended to the hearings
A former auxiliary prosecutor indicated that the lack of knowledge of the charges was extended, in some cases, to the process of the judicial hearings, because the provincial prosecutor of Managua, Alejandro López Dávila, would only order that they should attend one hearing, without knowing the case; there were even cases where they were not given the file, just the charges.
“The cases were cooked up in an office where no one had access, only those people (chosen prosecutors),” commented the source. “You do not know the content of the evidence, it is in the hearing where you become aware of the reality,” she added.
The lack of communication between accusing prosecutors and prosecutors in the hearing or trial were limited to the cases of demonstrators with little notoriety from the media. In the cases of university leaders or peasant leaders, like Medardo Mairena, the Attorney General would send members of an elite group of prosecutors.
“In the emblematic cases, they (recruited prosecutors) would not sign the charges, but they would if they were going to the hearings and trials,” stressed an auxiliary prosecutor.
Supervision during the trials
In spite of sending their best prosecutors, the Attorney General´s Office constantly supervised the performance of the officials in the political trials. That control and oversight was the responsibility of López Dávila and Lilliam Beatriz Soza, chief prosecutor of the Tribunals.
“Alejandro directs the prosecutor of the hearing or trial on all the arguments that should be used in their intervention before the judges. Lilliam supervises the behavior of the prosecutors and checksampl their cell phones,” related a source from the Attorney General´s office.
The prosecutors do not have decision making power over the process, they obey all the directions from the leadership, from requesting a cautionary measure, more information, correction of material errors in the charges and exchange of evidence, to the sentences to be imposed and aggravating factors to impose in the hearing on sentencing.
“They direct you in what you are going to do. They are puppets because they cannot express an opinion,” stated the former prosecutor, who for nearly a decade belonged to the organized crime unit.