2 de enero 2021
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The Ortega regime maintained the siege against opponents and relatives of political prisoners until the last day of 2020. On the morning of this Thursday, December 31, riot police physically and verbally attacked the mother of political prisoner Edward Lacayo, her daughter Karen Lacayo denounced.
Riot Police arrived at Lacayo’s house, in Monimbo, Masaya, at six in the morning and surrounded the house. Estelita Rodriguez, mother of Karen and Edward, was going to a corner store that opens early to buy juice, bread and milk. However, when she opened the door of her house she was attacked, Lacayo told Confidencial. “Two riot policemen threw the gate and pushed my mother. They hit my mother,” she said.
The blow was to the left arm where, according to Lacayo, her mother had a healed wound that, with the push, was injured. Besides the physical aggression, the riot police officers also shouted insults. An hour and a half after what happened, Lacayo’s uncle came to the house to see her mother, but the Police did not let him in, she said.
Lacayo called on human rights organizations to verify their situation, “to come here and see that we are kidnapped in our own home,” she denounced.
The riot police arrived at 6 in the morning and surrounded the house of political prisoner Edward Lacayo, his sister, Karen Lacayo, denounced. // Photo: Courtesy.
The siege suffered by the family of the political prisoner Edward Lacayo has continued for a month. The riot police arrive atsix in the morning and go away at two in the afternoon, but they always leave a patrol with policemen that retires around eight at night. Lacayo denounced that neither she nor her mother can leave.
Lacayo is concerned about the repercussions of the police siege on her mother’s health, since she is 68 and has diabetes and hypertension. Added to this are the financial problems that the family is going through. “Here we are without work. We are going through an awfully bad time,” said Lacayo, who maintains the demand for her brother’s freedom.
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) denounced the aggression on Lacayo’s mother and demanded an end to the repression and that the integrity of the relatives of the political prisoner be respected.
More siege against the opposition
Five police patrols surrounded the hotel where the swearing-in of the North Caribbean Departmental Committee of the opposition National Coalition in Bilwi, was going to take place. It was scheduled for this Wednesday, December 30, said Nancy Henriquez, a member of the Coalition on behalf of the Yatama party.
Due to the police presence, they changed the meeting place, but seven patrols and officers on motorcycles also arrived at the new location, Henriquez said.
The swearing in was carried out despite the siege of the Police. Throughout 2020, the Ortega regime has maintained in Nicaragua a siege against released political prisoners, leaders of the opposition, critics of the Government and relatives of political prisoners. Several of them have been subjected to house arrest or movement restricted, without any legal justification.
