Nicaraguan Bishop Silvio Báez denounced this Wednesday “the terrible suffering of political prisoners” in Nicaragua, “because of the cruelty of an inhuman dictatorship”, alluding to the Government of President Daniel Ortega, in power since 2007.
Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua and who has been out of Nicaragua for 33 months by decision of Pope Francis for security reasons, sent a message on Twitter following learning that the so-called “political prisoners” are suffering fainting, memory loss, dental pieces and weight, and isolation in cells.
“The terrible ordeal of political prisoners and the limitless cruelty of a dictatorship,” Báez said in another message, revealing in 2019 that there was a plan to assassinate him in 2018, when demonstrations broke out once morest the Ortega government for reforms to social security.
The relatives of the more than 40 Nicaraguan opponents detained since last year in a prison known as “Nuevo Chipote” denounced on Tuesday the serious health and prison conditions in which their relatives, mainly the elderly, are found.
THOSE OF THE THIRD AGE
They mentioned the case of the jurist José Pallais, 68, vice chancellor during the Government of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997), who was overweight and had several chronic diseases when he was arrested last June, and who has now lost almost 90 pounds weight (40.5 kilos) and that “his state of physical weakness that has led him to suffer two faints.”
Another who has suffered fainting is the former Nicaraguan ambassador to Costa Rica and to the Organization of American States (OAS) Mauricio Díaz, 71, who has lost around 30 pounds (13.5 kilos), has spots on his skin and blackouts, according to the complaint.
The former Nicaraguan ambassador to the OAS Edgar Parrales, 79, a former diocesan priest who defended liberation theology and who was Minister of Social Welfare during the first Sandinista government (1979-1990), “lacks a large intestine, has a hernia and has lost 12 pounds (5.4 kilos) in 40 days, “according to the complaint.
Meanwhile, the 70-year-old opposition leader Violeta Granera has lost teeth, finds it difficult to eat and has red spots on her face due to lack of sun.
Another who has suffered fainting is the general manager of the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, who has also had a “spot on his eye.”
Likewise, the family members expressed their concern regarding the physical and mental health of Roger Reyes, from the Blue and White National Unit and lawyer for the imprisoned presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga, who, according to the complaint, “is losing his memory and immersed in a deep depression.
CENIDH: THERE IS A MACABRA PROVISION
The president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), Vilma Núñez, told reporters that “there is a macabre disposition within the Chipote for political prisoners and their families to collapse.”
Cenidh accompanies the relatives of the “political prisoners” in the complaint, to which the State of Nicaragua has not yet referred.
The family members have asked that a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) be allowed in to verify the physical and mental health conditions of each imprisoned opponent.
Since May 28, the National Police, led by a brother-in-law of President Ortega, has arrested more than 40 opposition leaders, activists, businessmen, journalists and former Sandinista guerrillas, who have later been accused by the Prosecutor’s Office of treason once morest the fatherland. or money laundering.
One day following the voting on November 7, Ortega referred to the so-called “political prisoners,” whom he called “sons of bitches of the Yankee imperialists.” EFE
