The retired general of Nicaraguan Army Humberto Ortega, president’s brother Daniel Ortega, criticized this Friday the confinement suffered by the historical combatant Hugo Torreswho died in police custody last Saturday due to an unspecified “illness”, and also called for the release of political prisoners.
Torres, one of the most daring Sandinista guerrillas in the fight once morest the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, “dies, like anyone at his age (73 years) and physical conditions, when exposed in the cruel confinement,” reproached the brother of President Ortega in an article published in the newspaper La Prensa.
Known as “Comandante Uno”, Torres had been in prison since June 13 of last year, accused by his former comrade in the struggle, President Ortega, of being, together with forty imprisoned opposition leaders, “traitors to the homeland.” , “criminals” and some “sons of bitches of the Yankee imperialists”.
He freed Ortega from prison and died as a prisoner of Ortega
The former head of the Army recalled that his brother, who had been imprisoned since 1967 accused of robbing a bank in Managua, was released on December 27, 1974 by a Sandinista “urban commando” that had Torres among its chiefs and that they assaulted the residence of José María Castillo Quant, one of Somoza’s ministers.
In 1978 he risked his life once more in another assault together with former guerrilla Dora María Téllez, also arrested and sentenced last week to eight years in prison, and other former guerrillas, to free 60 political prisoners, including Tomás Borge, Doris Tijerino, René Núñez and other Sandinista leaders.
“Audacious actions that free political prisoners from the prisons of the Somoza tyranny, hard political-moral blows to the Somoza regime,” stressed the president’s brother.
“A prominent political cadre”
Humberto Ortega He stressed that Torres “was a relevant Sandinista militant, due to his convictions and courage to overcome the tough challenges of the fight once morest the bloodthirsty military dictatorship, the Somoza dynasty, and the National Guard.”
“Because he is an outstanding political cadre, he is recognized as a guerrilla commander and is incorporated into the party structure of the Sandinista Assembly,” as well as into the Military Council of the former Sandinista Popular Army (EPS), where he was head of the military political leadership. , military intelligence and became a brigadier general.
After the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas, Torres continued the struggle in the civic field and joined one of the various factions into which the former FSLN was divided in the 1990s, “and he does not shy away from sacrifice, prison, in which a Once once more he demonstrates his revolutionary convictions, and dies, like anyone at his age and physical conditions, when exposed in the cruel confinement,” adds the president’s brother.
Call for the release of “political prisoners”
The retired general stressed that Torres died consistent with the oath of Nicaraguan hero Augusto C. Sandino to defend “national decorum,” and advocated that his fate serve to resolve the political crisis that the Central American country has been experiencing since April 2018. .
“Today, this unfortunate, painful outcome of a comrade in struggle, who consistently fulfills this oath to the end, should contribute to the solution route to the political crisis that our country is suffering,” he advocated.
In his opinion, Nicaragua “urgently requires a climate of reconciliation… political prisoners be released, by means of any of the legal, legal instruments required.”