This article in explaining why La Prensa has named political prisoners “Person of the Year” recounts in detail the harsh treatment political prisoners and their families are receiving from the Ortega regime, while the regime highlights its mercy toward common criminals in this holiday season.
Person of the Year for 2021: Political Prisoners
In La Prensa by Editors of Domingo Dec 26, 2021
La Prensa has chosen political prisoners as person of the year for 2021 due to the fact that all the brutality of the Ortega dictatorship has been manifested through them this year. All of the current situation of Nicaragua passes through them.
The first and principal reason is that they are innocent. The political prisoners have not committed the crimes for which the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega has accused them. They are in prison because they have raised their voices to denounce the abuses of the regime. The institutions controlled by the dictator (MIGOB, Police, Judicial Branch, Prosecutor´s office) have not ensured them due process. They have not held fair trials. They have been denied visits from family members. They have not even been assured adequate access to health care.
They are political prisoners and the repression that Ortega and Rosario Murillo have unleashed this year 2021 has been personified in them, increasing their torture and that of their relatives, and sending a message to all Nicaraguans, and the international community about what can happen to everyone who dares to oppose the dictatorship.
The regime has unloaded all its cruelty on the more than 40 political prisoners that it has jailed since this past May 2021, but it cannot be forgotten that since 2018 it has held at least 124 Nicaraguans unfairly incarcerated.
La Prensa has chosen political prisoners as their person of the year to include all of them. Men and women, young and elderly. From the first one, the former soldier Marvin Vargas, to the last one who was counted, the former ambassador Edgard Parrales, 79 years of age.
One of the most credible lists that have been prepared on the amount of political prisoners in the power of Ortega is from the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners, which started after the union of several human rights organizations, relatives of political prisoners, former political prisoners and territorial leaders and social networks.
According to the Mechanism, up until the last day of November 2021 there were a total of 168 political prisoners in the Ortega jails. Most, 158, are people who were arrested between the protests of April 2018 and today. Prior to that date there were 10 political prisoners identified: the former soldier from the military draft Marvin Vargas, jailed for leading protests demanding benefits for those who fulfilled Obligatory Military Service (OMS) in the 1980s, and nine more people detained after the attack on a caravan of Sandinistas who were returning from Managua to Ciudad Darío after the July 19th celebration of 2014, where five Sandinista supporters died.
The Mechanism clarified that not all are on that list, because they have only registered those political prisoners whose families have authorized their inclusion in the list.
Nicaragua, a huge jail
“In times of darkness, my country was a huge jail. In stormy times, Nicaragua was a country without the Rule of Law. Persecutions, exile and political prisoners ended in 1990. Nicaragua recovered freedom,” wrote former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro in her book, Dreams of the Heart, published after she turned over power to Arnoldo Alemán in January 1997.
More than 24 years later, her children Cristiana and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios are political prisoners. Another of her sons, Carlos Fernando, is in exile.
When Barrios de Chamorro said that “my country was a huge jail,” she referred to the times of the dictatorships of Somoza (1937-1979) and the Sandinistas (1979-1990), which kept their opponents jailed for political reasons, for criticizing and denouncing injustices. But that had ended when she came to power in 1990, after defeating in the polls the all-powerful Sandinista commandantes, led by Daniel Ortega, who just a few days from the elections still had dozens of political prisoners in La Modelo.
Currently, December 2021, Daniel Ortega once again has turned Nicaragua into “a huge jail.” Among the many other abuses, Ortega began eliminating the right of the citizenry to protest in the streets, when in April 2018 the people awoke and took those streets in a self-convened and massive way. The dictatorship did not put up with that and ordered the demonstrations to be repressed with paramilitaries and weapons of war, causing the killing of more than 300 Nicaraguans and sending more than 1,000 people to jail.
Just between April and May 2018 more than 690 people were arrested, according to a report of the GIEI. There were no judicial orders for those arrests. Police chiefs were turned into judicial authorities.
By January 2019 the total number of political prisoners counted by the Mechanism was 767. At that time the list included the disappeared, because the regime was not providing information about those arrested, and therefore it was unknown whether some of the disappeared were prisoners or not.
An amnesty that Ortega self-prescribed in June 2019 to conceal the crimes that they did commit in 2018 led the dictatorship to free some political prisoners, but not all. So of the 227 political prisoners who the Mechanism had registered in May 2019, they became 91 at the end of June of that year.
At the beginning of May 2021 there were 122 political prisoners in Ortega´s jails. The figure went up again when at the end of the month the dictatorship started a new wave of arrests.
It started on May 28th with the capture of two former collaborators of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation (FVBCH), Walter Gómez and Marcos Fletes. And they were followed by the president of the Foundation, then presidential candidate Cristiana Chamorro. At that time the regime had captured more than 40 people. Seven presidential candidates, members of civil society, political leaders, business people and a banker.
The entire country was once again turned into a jail because the dictator in an anomalous fashion has ordered migratory restrictions not just on opponents but also on its followers. Many public officials cannot resign from their posts, nor can they leave the country. They are also sequestered.
The thousands of exiles who have left Nicaragua fleeing Ortega´s repression, have left through blind spots on the border.
The calvary of their relatives
Every day at 6am the relatives of those recently detained by the dictatorship have to go to the new Chipote to leave them something. It is torture, because the police only allow one liter of water at a time. Not cold. And at some point in the day they do accept receiving some nutritional complement for those who are diabetic. Also oral rehydration.
They do not allow them to pass food to them.
The other two hours where they receive water are 11am and 4pm.
If it is difficult for a relative to show up more than once a day, they do not allow them to leave three liters of water at one time. They are obliged to show up three times a day.
“They do not allow us to take it all in one visit. They say at what hour they are going to receive just water and at what hour they are going to receive water and Ensure and Glucernas. Recently they will not receive even juice from us. Much less are we able to pass them fruit, some meat, protein for them. They do not let us,” explained a relative of a political prisoner, who warned, “Please do not put my name. Please. I want to spend this year free.”
Several relatives of political prisoners consulted by La Prensa explained that it is an exhausting situation, emotionally, physically as well as economically. The dictatorship does not allow any person to leave water. It has to be a close relative. Wife, mother, child, brother or sister at the least.
Most of the relatives are people completely removed from politics. Many women show up who have difficulty walking. The wife of Edgard Parrales. The wife of Victor Hugo Tinoco and also his daughter Cristian who has cancer. The mother of Lesther Alemán. The spouse of Violeta Granera. The spouse of Francisco Aguirre Sacasa. Doña “Pinita”, the mother of Ana Margarita Vijil and grandmother of Tamara Dávila.
There are very few relatives who are not very old. Maybe only the spouses of Miguel Mora and Miguel Mendoza, as well as the spouse of Dr. María Oviedo.
What all the political prisoners and their relatives are experiencing who are in the new Chipote is very similar. It is the same story with different protagonists.
Most of them have been in jail for seven months. Their relatives saw them for the first time three months after Fletes and Gómez were arrested. Then they have been seen in two other months, October and November.
Since this past December 10th, the relatives were expecting a date to be able to visit them again, but up until this past December 24th they were never notified. The children are hoping to see their parents, their mothers, their grandparents. But that has not been possible this month of December, in spite of the multiple petitions that have been made to the dictatorship, nationally as well as internationally.
They are there waiting. The daughter of the sports reporter Miguel Mendoza. The special needs son of the journalist Miguel Mora. The child of Félix Maradiaga. The daughter of Tamara Dávila. The boy of Walter Gómez. The two children of Marcos Fletes. The grandchildren of all the elderly adults who are detained.
On this list are the political prisoners of the dictatorship from the end of May 2021 to December 24th. There are more than 40 opponents of the nearly 170 who the Ortega Murillo regime keeps detained.
“On these days (Christmas and New Year) they are alone, without visits. It hurts me because of the small children who want to see their parents. They are people who are there only for raising their voices, for denouncing injustices,” indicated one of the relatives.
To top it off for the relatives they cannot even denounce the abuses that the political prisoners suffer, because if their relatives talk, they will suffer reprisals in jail or they themselves run the risk of being arrested, especially because of the cybercrime law.
A “danger”
“For talking like this I could face a process,” explains one of the lawyers who defends political prisoners.
The dictatorship has taken it out also against the lawyers who represent the prisoners in the political trials. More than 14 defense attorneys of political prisoners have had to flee the country to not be arrested. One who was not able to escape was the lawyer María Oviedo from the Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH), who has been jailed since July 29th, when she was arrested for having provided declarations about the cases she had. It was the second time she was arrested.
“It is very difficult to be a defender of political prisoners in these times. Those who are doing it are because they really love justice. We do not earn a lot of money. Really it is more than difficult, it is a danger. I would say that it is a danger,” reiterated one of the defense attorneys.
The lawyer explained that there are four laws recently approved by the Ortega government that make everything difficult, among them the work of defense attorneys, especially the law of cybercrimes and the foreign agents law.
The cybercrimes law can be applied to everyone who makes a statement denouncing the human rights violations of political prisoners. Therefore, not even the defense attorneys nor the relatives of prisoners can talk to defend them.
Defense attorneys cannot receive aid from organizations either, because they can be processed under the foreign agents law.
Things are made difficult for defense attorneys because they must continue with their tasks of litigating in the courts of the country, but are pointed out by public officials and receive reprisals. “Our circle of work is getting smaller. Some have been left with no other option than to leave the country,” says another lawyer.
Increase in torture
Every day in jail is the same. Especially in the new Chipote, where Ortega´s police leave the lights on the political prisoners turned on all the time, a form of torture what also can work to make them lose the notion of the passage of time.
In any event, former political prisoners, like Ivania Álvarez, say that they are always aware of dates like Christmas and New Year, when the most difficult thing for the prisoners is knowing that their relatives are concerned about them.
The political prisoners, even in jail, continue in the struggle for Nicaragua to be freed from the dictatorship and are more united than ever in prison. They are true opponents of the Ortega regime but when they were outside there were differences among them. Those from the Civic Alliance. Those from the UNAB. Those from CxL. Peasant leaders. The MRS (now UNAMOS). Now in jail they have achieved unity. Ortega has increased torture on them.
Ivania Álvarez relates that in 2018 they passed food to the political prisoners; they saw their relatives once a month. If one got sick, they would inform a relative.
This year 2021 the situation has gotten worse, because they do not allow any food to be passed and they have super restricted visits. They do not allow them to see their relatives. “This is a form of psychological torture” says a defense attorney.
In this year 2021 there were no political prisoners freed, with the exception of April, when a group of five were freed, among them Celia from Ometepe.
The dictatorship even refused the political prisoner Eliseo Castro, who since September has been in the Lenin Fonseca hospital for a stroke, to be given house arrest. His relatives have asked Ortega for mercy, but the dictatorship has not granted it.
Max Jerez and José Adán Aguerri had their mothers die while they were jailed, and they were not allowed to attend their funerals.
Figure 1 Heidi Meza in center, mother of political prisoner Max Jerez died while he was incarcerated
Due to the poor food, all have lost between 25 to 40 pounds. They sleep on beds of concrete and they are not allowed to be passed mattresses nor pillows. Many prisoners have been left alone in Nicaragua, because their relatives have had to leave the country to not fall into the claws of the regime. One of these cases is that of Karen Lacayo, the sister of Edward Lacayo, the “Lobo Feroz” of Masaya.
Two other laws that have been brutal for the political prisoners are the reform of the Penal Processing Code (OPP), through which Ortega expanded the period of arrest under investigation from 48 hours to 90 days.
Through this measure, the dictatorship keeps people jailed without the need to be forced to take them before a judge, which violates the principal of the presumption of innocence which the Constitution dictates for all Nicaraguan citizens, explain defense attorneys.
The other law is 1055, through which most of the political prisoners since May 28 have been detained, who are accused of treason.
Currently, another lawyer explains, the political prisoners detained since May 2021 are left in great uncertainty, because their trials are on hold and they have not yet received sentences.
Most of those recently detained have not even had contact with any defense attorney. They are not allowed to talk to their lawyers.
Everything passes through the political prisoners
Even in the conditions in which they are found in the jails of Ortega, political prisoners represent a great triumph. A defense attorney explains that they continue the struggle and that through them it has been demonstrated that the dictatorship is persecuting the right of its citizens to express themselves, demonstrate, mobilize, to have freedom of thought.
“Through the political prisoners Ortega sends a message to the entire Nicaraguan society that in Nicaragua there is no freedom to think differently. He sends them that message so that they might be afraid to exercise their constitutional rights,” indicates a lawyer, who explains that this can be seen in the fact that the cost of living is getting higher and higher, but no one is taking to the streets to protest.
“Many families will not socialize this Christmas because there is no money, but people cannot express themselves because they are afraid,” said the lawyer.
Different anonymous sources indicate in this way political prisoners have a fundamental relevance in the current struggle against the dictatorship.
“Everything passes through the liberation of the political prisoners,” points out a former political prisoner, who adds that part of the sanctions that the Ortega officials have received on the part of the United States, European Union and other nations are due to the fact that the dictatorship is violating the human rights of political prisoners.
“Before talking about removing sanctions, prior to talking about dialogue, or that elections be held, the first is that they be freed,” indicates an anonymous source.
Figure 2 Marvin Vargas was the first, who only asked for benefits for his fellow soldiers who did Military Service in the 1980s
The people “erupt”
For many it is frustrating to see how Ortega remains in power four years after the beginning of the protest of April 2018.
Nevertheless, different sources indicate that Ortega is losing the battle with political prisoners. Until he frees them, more sanctions will continue coming.
“It is not that the political prisoners, their relatives or defense attorneys are asking for sanctions against Ortega. It is the fact that international organizations, the international community are observing the cruel behavior of the regime. And since there is no one in Nicaragua who can punish those violations, then the international community takes charge of that. But it is not that political prisoners are asking for these sanctions. Nor we the defense attorneys. We only prepare the reports and that is also why they want to shut us up,” indicates a defender of political prisoners.
“The State is harming innocent human beings. That is why they resort to international bodies,” said another defense attorney.
Figure 3 Part of the 13 female political prisoners
“People in Nicaragua are like Cerro Negro [the volcano]. They keep quiet and suddenly erupt. People are upset. Everything that Ortega is doing with political prisoners makes him more and more un unpopular ruler. People will look for a way to express themselves,” said a relative of a political prisoner.
A former political prisoner indicates that keeping political prisoners is affecting Ortega because he has to explain, even to this own followers, how it is possible to keep elderly adults in jail, people who have worked for the good of Nicaragua, young students, women, sick people, people who weigh 100 pounds and who have never been terrorists or traitors to the country.
Political prisoners are transcendental in Nicaragua today. The fight against the dictatorship passes through them. All the brutality of the Ortega dictatorship is manifested in them, made worse during this 2021. That is why La Prensa has chosen political prisoners as person of the year in 2021.