The Concertación Democrática Nicaragüense (CDN) Monteverde, condemns the precarious situation that political prisoners continue to face in Nicaraguan jails, and the torture to which the authorities subject their families, so we insist on the demand for their immediate and full release and to stop the harassment and persecution of their families.
According to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners, 121 Nicaraguans, 19 women and 102 men, continue to suffer systematic violations of their human rights. They have been tried in spurious trials in which their fundamental rights, including the right to defense, are violated. In addition, many remain in punishment cells, without access to sunlight; and others share cells with common prisoners, who subject them to systematic attacks that endanger their physical integrity. This is in addition to the constant mistreatment and torture to which they are subjected by their jailers.
During the press conference held on Thursday, February 22, CDN Monteverde political board members Rosalia Miller, Juan Diego Barberena and Jesús Tefel reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to continue fighting for a Nicaragua where we can all live freely, with justice and full respect for our rights.
“Ours is not a war of vengeance, it is not a war of the liver. What we really want is to recover a country that works for all its citizens, to recover a country to rebuild it, so that we recover hope… Because one of the main catastrophes is that in Nicaragua hope is being lost,” said Tefel.
And given the conditions faced by those imprisoned for political reasons, CDN Monteverde alerts the organizations that watch over the rights of the imprisoned and the international community about the risk of assassination or “sudden death” faced by these 121 Nicaraguans in prison. This fear arises because there is already a precedent with the murder of Eddy Montes and the death of Hugo Torres, both at the hands of the dictatorship. A similar situation to the assassination of the opponent Alexie Navalny in Russia, which adds to the list of repressive techniques of totalitarian and sultanic systems, such as the one exercised by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua.
The CDN Monteverde reiterates its solidarity with all persons imprisoned for political reasons and their families. In a special way it denounces the cruel isolation to which the ex-deputy and leader of the regional party Yatama, Brooklyn Rivera and the teacher Freddy Quezada are subjected, who after several months of kidnapping have not been able to meet with their families, so they are in a state of enforced disappearance.
It also condemns the constant threats, harassment, harmful treatment, extortion and restriction of prison visits suffered by the relatives of persons imprisoned for political reasons by State officials. It also denounces that these abuses and violations of the fundamental rights of citizens have been extended to relatives of former political prisoners, who face the confiscation of their property and the imposition of various restrictive measures, including the denial of their right to enter the country.
The CDN Monteverde ratifies that in view of the outrages and violations of human rights to which the Ortega Murillo regime subjects the country, and in view of the role it has assumed as a trafficker of migrants, taking advantage of the vulnerability of thousands of people whom it exposes to transnational criminal networks, it maintains and will maintain constant denunciation and lobbying before the international community. In addition, it remains committed to continue its civic struggle to achieve a transition to democracy, in which Nicaraguans can live freely, with justice and respect for fundamental rights.
In addition, we are concerned about the actions of the Costa Rican Judiciary in the extradition of Douglas Gamaliel Pérez Centeno, as it sets a serious precedent in the history of refuge in Costa Rica, and of submission to the Ortega Murillo dictatorship on the part of a free and sovereign State that is guided by democratic principles and respect for human rights. We are particularly concerned that extradition procedures and international principles of non-refoulement were violated.