Come rain or thunder; be it Christmas or New Years, they must appear daily to sign in at their local police stations.
By Ivannia Alvarez (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – The afternoon of May 3, 2023, turned confusing and terrifying for over a hundred citizens from 15 Nicaraguan departments. Pick-up trucks full of armed police – equipped like they were heading for a war – parked in front of their houses for a few seconds, then proceeded to force their way in with no legal warrants. It didn’t matter if there were children there, or sick elders. The police came in, turned over beds and rifled through closets and other furniture in search of “incriminating evidence.” Their searches met with no success, because all the victims were innocent.
When they couldn’t find any “evidence,” the police stole computers, cellphones, cash, personal documents including ID cards, passports, and even some items of clothing. Through intimidation or by force, they loaded the citizens they’d come for into the police cars and took them handcuffed at top speeds along the country’s dark highways. These victims were completely disconcerted – without knowing where they were being taken. They asked questions but received no reply. They imagined that a cell in the infamous El Chipote jail or La Modelo prison awaited them.
Those who were being transported from the Caribbean Coast and from Chinandega suffered the greatest mistreatment, waiting all night for the caravan of police patrol vehicles to all meet at some intersection.
The uncertainty grew as they ran into people they knew in the parking lot of the Managua Courts and realized that it had been a national raid. They felt accompanied, however, because for some reason or other, company during a bad time always comforts us.
That night, those detained were sent in groups, according to the department they came from, to appe