The Ortega police raid the main Nicaraguan newspaper and accuse it of "customs fraud"

Members of the Nicaraguan Police remain at the entrance of a property owned by Editorial La Prensa during a search operation in Managua.Jorge Torres / EFE

After noon this Friday, a police contingent from the Judicial Assistance Directorate (DAJ) broke into the facilities of the newspaper

La Prensa

under orders from the Government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, an Administration that maintains systematic harassment against the independent media In Nicaragua. The country is three months away from holding a general election that lacks the conditions of transparency and competitiveness. Officials took over the newsroom and administrative area of ​​the main Nicaraguan newspaper on the same day that its printed edition was suspended due to lack of paper, due to a new customs embargo imposed by Sandinismo.

While officials and employees of the General Customs Directorate carried out the search in the newspaper, the Police issued a statement in which they reported that they had opened an investigation against Grupo Editorial

La Prensa

and its directors for the alleged crimes of "customs fraud, laundering of money, goods and assets ”.

At times the raid occurred under uncertainty, since the police closed the gates of the main Nicaraguan newspaper, cut the internet, threw the main server of the newsroom (preventing its journalists from publishing on its website), and held it incommunicado for a few hours. to reporters and the rest of the staff.

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In the police note it was reported that members of the DAJ and officials of the DGA, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) and the Prosecutor's Office carried out a search and search of the warehouses of Editorial La Prensa Sociedad Anónimas, where the other commercial products are printed. of

La Prensa

, such as books and commercial publications.

Police confirmed that the newspaper was in police custody. The patrols entered the parking lot of the Board of Directors of the newspaper. Collaborators who were inside the facilities reported that the officers prevented them from using their phones.

La Prensa's

chief information officer

, Fabián Medina, who was at the facilities when the government authorities entered, said that the workers were allowed to return to the offices and that what the police chief was looking for was “the paper with Customs ”.

"It is part of the same offensive they are making against the (independent) media," Medina said as he left the facilities.

"There is no way to work, we do not have internet," denounced Medina, who weeks ago was summoned by the Prosecutor's Office and threatened with the Cybercrime Law, which establishes up to eight years in prison if the Government considers that a reporter published "false news." .

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The raid on

La Prensa

- whose historical director was Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, assassinated by the Somoza dictatorship in 1978 - is the final blow by the Ortega-Murillos against the only printed national newspaper, at a time when the repressive escalation in the face of The electoral process has imposed an “information blackout” against 32 opposition figures, among them seven presidential candidates, the cancellation of all political parties, and harassment against journalism through the Prosecutor's Office.

All this has led to a lot of self-censorship from reporters and information sources, who are afraid to give statements for fear of ending up in prison.

An orchestrated raid

The raid against

La Prensa

happens one day after the board of directors announced a customs embargo, withholding the necessary paper for the print run. "The paper is seized because the authorities of the General Directorate of Customs (DGA) do not approve the process of request for exoneration (of taxes) that

La Prensa carried out

since last July 26," the newspaper reported. "According to the law, the authorities have a maximum of days to respond to this request, however, on this occasion, 18 days have passed since the beginning of the process." Article 68 of the Political Constitution of Nicaragua establishes that the media with a "social function" - such as

La Prensa

- are exempt from "all kinds of taxes."

The process to import supplies was relatively normal until before 2018, when social protests against the Government broke out. The riots were neutralized with violence, as Human Rights organizations have denounced. The media became key to documenting the repression, and the government targeted the newsrooms. They confiscated the equipment of the channel 100% Noticias and

Confidencial

; He

imposed a long customs blockade

on the two national newspapers,

La Prensa

and

El Nuevo Diario

. El

Nuevo Diario could

not resist the lack of raw materials and in September 2019, after 40 years of circulation, it closed permanently.

“The cost of paper and supplies (retained for the first time in 2018) amounted to 225, 352 dollars, plus the payment of the fiscal warehouses. On that occasion the raw material was released (...) However, the 17 months of kidnapping caused great losses to the company, since it had to print on more expensive paper and was forced to sharply cut the scope of circulation, which considerably reduced sales ”, recalled

La Prensa

. Since that episode, the newspaper's management has made smaller imports of inputs, in shorter periods of time, to be able to circumvent the DGA. The Sandinista government, which considers the media “communication terrorists”, has now decided to torpedo the leading newspaper of Nicaraguan journalism in a questioned electoral context.

The government transferred its entire media apparatus to the

La Prensa

newsroom

to cover the raid.

Official reporters released images showing rolls of paper, accusing the newspaper of lying about the shortage of raw materials.

“A video of the official media circulates where they show the warehouses of

La Prensa

and assure that there is paper to print the newspaper and that

La Prensa is

lying.

Have someone help you distinguish between newspaper and printing paper.

Free the paper! ”, Lashed out the journalist Dora Luz Romero, editor of the digital edition.

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