© Provided by Associated Press
FILE – Cristiana Chamorro, former director of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation for Reconciliation and Democracy, arrives at the Public Ministry on May 21, 2021, where she was summoned to a meeting to explain alleged “inconsistencies” in financial reports presented to the government between 2015 and 2019, in Managua, Nicaragua. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix, File)
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Journalists Cristiana and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios, children of former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro (1990-1997), were sentenced Monday to eight and nine years in prison, respectively, after being accused of money laundering. and other crimes, reported the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH).
Lawyer Vilma Núñez, president of CENIDH, told The Associated Press that in the same case Walter Gómez and Marcos Fletes, administrator and accountant of the closed NGO Fundación Violeta Chamorro (FVBCH), were sentenced to 13 years in prison, while the driver Pedro Vásquez was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Cristiana Chamorro, 68, was considered the favorite to challenge President Daniel Ortega for power in the November elections. She was arrested on June 2, 2021, in the middle of the electoral campaign.
The judge ordered that the opponent continue under house arrest, while the other convicts will remain in preventive detention in the El Chipote police jail.
Núñez pointed out that all those convicted, except for Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, the judge also imposed “millions of dollars in fines, impossible to pay,” which could become life imprisonment if commuted.
“These are null sentences, they are innocent and we demand their immediate freedom,” said the veteran human rights activist, who has followed up on several of the trials carried out against some 46 opposition leaders, journalists, businessmen and former diplomats who have been imprisoned for more than eight months.
Cristiana Chamorro was arrested after announcing her intention to run as a candidate to challenge Ortega, who was eventually re-elected in the November 7 elections for a fourth term that began two months later. Six other candidates for the presidency were imprisoned during the electoral campaign, as part of the 46 opponents arrested.
On March 11, after a trial that lasted seven days, Cristiana Chamorro was found guilty of laundering money, goods and assets; misappropriation and improper retention; abusive management and ideological falsehood. The government of Daniel Ortega argues that she carried out “irregular transactions” from the FVBCH with funds from governments and international organizations.
The Chamorro Foundation, which ceased operations in January 2021 and was closed by the government last month, was dedicated to promoting training courses for journalists and financing media outlets and projects in defense of freedom of expression. The Chamorro family also owns the newspaper “La Prensa”, which was closed by the government and remains under police occupation.
The general manager of “La Prensa”, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, who has been in prison since August 2021, was brought to trial this Monday.
Violeta Barrios de Chamorro defeated Daniel Ortega at the polls in 1990, thus ending almost ten years of Sandinista revolution.