Using abductions, threats, and fear of mistreatment
Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo are holding student leaders, professors, opposition leaders, a journalist, and members of the Catholic Church in prison. Here’s why their family members don’t speak out.
HAVANA TIMES – Relatives of Nicaragua’s political prisoners are afraid to speak out. Doing so means risking still more their family member’s safety or their own, due to the constant threats of losing their freedom or of greater mistreatment for their loved ones. Fear has imposed silence over the Nicaraguan prisons where some 105 political prisoners remain, despite the release and banishment of 19 priests and lay Catholic leaders on January 13th.
The risk of being imprisoned themselves, “increase the level of fear among close relatives that are already facing an anguishing situation due to the detention of their loved ones,” warns the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners in their December 2023 report. This group is the only remaining source of information in the country.
The report continues: “These coercive practices on the part of the prison authorities generates an atmosphere of forced silence and fear, making it even more difficult to access truth and justice for those imprisoned for political reasons.”
With the recent release of the 19 religious leaders – 14 of whom were already on the Mechanism’s list – the group now reports 105 confirmed political prisoners. Adding the 60 citizens who are under de facto house arrest, this means at least 165 people in Nicaragua are deprived of liberty.
The Mechanism warns that there could “easily” be more political prisoners, but that the repression has kept family members from denouncing the abuses, thus worsening the under-registry of detentions.
“After the release [and banishment] of the 17 priests and 2 seminarians, the feeling among the prisoners’ relatives is bittersweet. On the one hand, they’re happy, because one less person on that list is a joy to everyone. But, on the other hand, they also feel desperation and enormous worry, since
