Nicaraguan guerrilla and political prisoner Dora María Téllez during a hearing in Managua. Leonel López
After more than 400 days locked up in punishment cells and in total isolation, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo exhibited for the first time the political prisoners it keeps in the dreaded prison of the Judicial Assistance Directorate (DAJ), known as El Chipote.
Opposition presidential candidates, political activists, journalists, businessmen and peasants have been taken to the Criminal Chamber of the Managua Court of Appeals in unusual hearings classified as "informative".
The paleness and malnutrition of most of the inmates is evident and some, like the mythical former Sandinista guerrilla commander Dora María Téllez, were bothered by the light because they had been confined in the dark for more than a year.
The exhibition of the political prisoners began unexpectedly on August 30, one day after their relatives denounced in a press conference that the food rations in El Chipote had been reduced "to extremes incompatible with life."
Police sources told EL PAÍS that the hunger policy was imposed on August 19, when the priests who accompanied Monsignor Rolando Álvarez in the Curia of Matagalpa were captured.
Before the arrival of the priests in El Chipote, food had improved because a series of
spoken portraits
or reconstructions of the detainees disclosed by their relatives forced the authorities to show the pre-candidate Félix Maradiaga.
The exhibition evidenced at that time the reports of weight loss of up to 60 pounds, about 27 kilos, in some political prisoners.
“Last month they were given a huge amount of food.
Excessive rations after the first photo of Felix came out.
Some prisoners have been given cortisone to relieve pain and that has influenced the sudden weight gain to present them with a better appearance, "says the police source.
The political prisoners Félix Madariaga and Tamara Dávila Rivas.RR.SS.
Lawyer Gonzalo Carrión, from the Nicaraguan Human Rights Collective Never Again and in exile in Costa Rica, said that this dissemination of photographs of political prisoners is intended as a "publicity effect" aimed at the international community, with the aim of discrediting the complaints from relatives, given the multiple complaints of human rights violations against prisoners of conscience.
“Some are evidently physically deteriorating, but that is only a signal from the regime to say that the political prisoners are alive there.
Their purpose is only to exhibit them,” said Carrión.
The political prisoners who have lost the most weight over the course of more than a year in prison are: the lawyer José Pallais (90 pounds), the political commentator Jaime Arellano (80 pounds) and the peasant leader Medardo Mairena (74 pounds).
All of them big men.
Others, such as the former financier of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation, Walter Gómez, the former candidate for the Presidency Félix Maradiaga, the political scientist José Antonio Peraza and the peasant leader Pedro Mena have lost at least 60 pounds.
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) criticized that this parade of political prisoners represents yet another "abuse" by the regime against opponents and their families, because in criminal proceedings "informative hearing" does not exist in Nicaraguan law.
"According to the procedure given to the procedures of these judicial farces, all these political prisoners have already been notified of their convictions, ratified by the Court of Appeals... We alert of these perverse acts, this is another commission of abuse by the regime and another commission of crimes by judges and magistrates”, said the Cenidh.
Edgar Stuardo Ralón, rapporteur on the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty and for the Prevention and Combat of Torture of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), uses a term that until now had not been mentioned in this Central American country: he said that The Ortega Murillo family subject political prisoners to "white torture."
Student leader Lesther Alemán arriving at the court for a hearing in Managua, on August 30, 2022. CESAR PEREZ (AFP)
"The term is used when there are prison regimes of extreme isolation," says Stuardo Ralón.
The goal is that the person can be affected in their mental health, even lose their own identity, "adds the specialist, while this is mixed with poor dietary intake.
"White torture" is a relatively modern method of torture, already used by countries such as the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), Iran, the United States, Venezuela or Cuba, among others, according to reports from human rights organizations.
“International procedures”
Although it is unknown if the surprise exhibition of the prisoners responds to any pressure or negotiation maintained by the Ortega Murillo regime, on Tuesday the Colombian Foreign Ministry issued a statement hinting at "international negotiations" with Managua.
The Government of Gustavo Petro issued this statement to counteract the criticism caused by the absence of his country in a session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), in which the Sandinista dictatorship was condemned for the resurgence of repression against the Catholic Church.
"Colombia's absence was due to both strategic and humanitarian reasons and not ideological ones," alleges the Colombian Foreign Ministry.
The window of opportunity for major humanitarian action in Nicaragua coincided with the vote that day.
Diplomatic silence was kept due to the fact that we could not make public the international negotiations that were being carried out before obtaining a result.
We hope that the leaks do not have adverse consequences for what was sought, ”they add, without giving further details.
Berta Valle, wife of political prisoner Felix Maradiaga, trusted this Wednesday in Costa Rica that the "humanitarian management" mentioned by the left-wing government of Petro "is really to talk about human rights and the release of political prisoners" in Nicaragua.
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