Monitoring organizations denounce numerous daily abuses committed against the political prisoners, including inadequate food and total isolation. Forced disappearances have also increased.
HAVANA TIMES – Family members and organizations that monitor the situation of Nicaragua’s political prisoners denounce the continued cruel and inhumane treatment these victims of Ortega’s dictatorship are suffering. They also note that the number of forced disappearances has increased.
“The situation that all those unjustly imprisoned are experiencing is desperate. Because of that, we urgently call on the international community to continue demanding their immediate release. Many of them are ill and not receiving any type of medical attention,” denounced “Gloria” (assumed name) the sister of a political prisoner, in an interview with Confidencial.
Gloria described how her brother’s “physical and mental health has deteriorated” due to the abuses.
“My brother is suffering. I see it in his eyes and in what he tells me, because, for example, they’ve reduced the amount of food and have restricted still further the entry of products we bring him,” she stated.
Arbitrary imprisonment of people considered opposition to the regime continues in Nicaragua. The most recent detentions include eight priests arrested in just ten days, between July 26 and August 5. Seven of them were released and banished to the Vatican on August 7th. However, the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners indicates that up through the end of July, at least 151 political prisoners were still in the jails of the Nicaraguan dictatorship. That number includes 25 women and 126 men, 10 of whom were jailed before 2018.
Political prisoners subject to daily abuses
Among the organizations that monitor the situation of the political prisoners in Nicaragua are the Reflection Group of Former Political Prisoners (GREX), the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners, and Urnas Abiertas [“Open Ballot Boxes”]. GREX recently revealed that they had received denunciations detailing daily abuses being committed every day against the