11 de agosto 2024
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Family members and organizations that monitor the situation of Nicaragua’s political prisoners denounce the continued cruel and inhumane treatment these victims of Ortega’s dictatorship are suffering. They also note that the number of forced disappearances has increased.
“The situation that all those unjustly imprisoned are experiencing is desperate. Because of that, we urgently call on the international community to continue demanding their immediate release. Many of them are ill and not receiving any type of medical attention,” denounced “Gloria” (assumed name) the sister of a political prisoner, in an interview with Confidencial.
Gloria described how her brother’s “physical and mental health has deteriorated” due to the abuses.
“My brother is suffering. I see it in his eyes and in what he tells me, because, for example, they’ve reduced the amount of food and have restricted still further the entry of products we bring him,” she stated.
Arbitrary imprisonment of people considered opposition to the regime continues in Nicaragua. The most recent detentions include eight priests arrested in just ten days, between July 26 and August 5. Seven of them were released and banished to the Vatican on August 7th. However, the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners indicates that up through the end of July, at least 151 political prisoners were still in the jails of the Nicaraguan dictatorship. That number includes 25 women and 126 men, 10 of whom were jailed before 2018.
Political prisoners subject to daily abuses
Among the organizations that monitor the situation of the political prisoners in Nicaragua are the Reflection Group of Former Political Prisoners (GREX), the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners, and Urnas Abiertas [“Open Ballot Boxes”]. GREX recently revealed that they had received denunciations detailing daily abuses being committed every day against the 50 or so political prisoners in Galleries 16 and 17 of the La Modelo men’s prison. These abuses “erode and aggravate the deterioration of their physical, psychological and emotional health, putting their lives at risk.”
The group specifies that the food portions allotted to the political prisoners “have been dramatically reduced;” and they’ve been forbidden to receive many food items from outside, including pinol (ground corn with sugar and spices to make a drink); cebada (ground barley and corn used for drinks); and other cereals.
They also raised alarm about the “inadequate medical care,” and the lack of specialized medical attention, especially for those with chronic illnesses. “This puts them at high risk if we consider that 20 of them are older adults (over 60) or nearly so,” GREX noted.
In terms of the medications their families bring them, “they [prison authorities] hand out the pills one by one, which complicates or fails to comply with the way they’re supposed to be ingested, thus diminishing their effectiveness.”
GREX added that the political prisoners also suffer “terrible hygienic and sanitary conditions” in the cells, leading to “foul odors, general unhealthiness, and flies.”
Further, family visits have been reduced to a maximum of 50 minutes every 30 days. The political prisoners are not allowed phone calls to relatives, nor communications with their lawyers.
Mistreatment amounting to torture still practiced
One of the female prisoners is in solitary confinement, and at least ten of them are being kept in isolated and reinforced cells, according to the most recent report from the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners.
“This forced confinement can lead to mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress, exacerbating their emotional suffering,” the report warns. The poor conditions “not only violate their basic human rights, but also seek to break their spirit and silence their voices.”
Ivannia Alvarez from Urnas Abiertas indicated that the mistreatment suffered by the men and women who’ve been imprisoned for political reasons “is also transferred to their families.” “During their visits, the family members are humiliated, watched constantly, and afterwards they’re harassed and threatened” she said.
More frequent use of forced disappearances
Advocate Ivania Alvarez is especially concerned because since April 2023 the Ortega-Murillo regime has increased the tactic of imprisonments that begin “with the person going missing.” “Forced disappearance is a form of torture they’ve been applying. After they take a person away, the family spends weeks without knowing where they are. Those they abduct are then kept isolated from the rest of the prisoners, leaving them at the mercy of their captors.”
She went on to explain that, according to their monitoring, the victims of such abductions aren’t only activists or people from the opposition, but also “government employees, religious leaders, or even common citizens accused of posting a complaint against the regime on social media.”
“To carry off a person and hold them in complete isolation is dehumanizing. They then make them believe that their life is dependent on their captors. That’s a terrible form of torture whose goal is to destroy someone mentally,” the activist affirmed.
As an example of such disappearance, Alvarez cited the most recent case of journalist Faviola Tercero. The young journalist, who managed a digital platform promoting reading, was abducted by police during a raid of her home on July 12. Since then, there’s been no information on her whereabouts. Numerous press and women’s organizations, including Reporters without Borders, the Inter-American Center for Legal Assistance (calidh) and the Association of Independent Nicaraguan Journalists and Communicators (PCIN) have denounced this case of arbitrary detention and disappearance.
This article was published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.
