Nicaragua: Daniel Ortega’s regime arrested former Deputy Foreign Minister Víctor Hugo Tinoco and there are already 13 opponents arrested in two weeks

In new attack by Daniel Ortega’s regime against Nicaraguan opposition, the police arrested the former Sandinista vice-chancellor Victor Hugo Tinoco, accused of inciting foreign interference, requesting military intervention and celebrating sanctions against members of the dictatorship. In this way, there are already 13 opponents arrested in less than two weeks.

Tinoco, 68, was arrested Sunday evening in the parking lot of a Managua shopping center. by “about 10 hooded men and civilians” that he was taken away in a vehicle, said one of his daughters who witnessed the capture. Minutes later, police released a statement confirming the arrest of the former Nicaraguan vice-chancellor, ambassador to the UN and negotiator in the peace process during the first Sandinista government (1979-1990), when Ortega was first president in 1985 for 1990.

With Tinoco There are 13 opposition leaders detained since June 2, of which there are four presidential candidates for the November 7 elections.

The weekend saw the biggest wave of arrests, when police arrested six leaders of the opposition Unamos movement, formerly known as the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), including Tinoco, the former guerrillas. Dora Maria Tellez Yes Hugo torres and three women leaders of Unamos.

In all cases, the police indicated that they were under investigation for “committing acts undermining independence, sovereignty and self-determination, inciting foreign interference in internal affairs and called for military intervention ”. They are also accused of “having organized themselves with funding from foreign powers to commit acts of terrorism and destabilization, propose and manage economic, commercial and financial blockade operations against the country and its institutions”.

The opponents would also have been guilty, according to the police, of “”demand, praise and applaud the imposition of sanctions against the State of Nicaragua and its citizens and undermine the supreme interests of the nation”.

Opposition accuses regime of trying to eliminate possible Ortega rivals from elections, who at almost 76 is aspiring to a third re-election for a fourth consecutive term from January 2022.

Meanwhile, relatives of opponents arrested over the weekend said that authorities in the Directorate of Legal Aid, known as the prison El Chipote, They were not allowed to see their relatives or give them food and personal hygiene items.

“We just left the morning package, this time they only let water through. When I asked for the exposure of our relatives they told us that the laws did not apply to El Chipote “, he denounced on social networks Ana Lucia Alvarez, sister of Tamara Dávila and niece of Ana Marguerite Vijil.

The weekend, Roger reyes, lawyer for opposition candidates Felix Maradiaga Yes Juan Sebastian Chamorro, said they did not allow him to deliver food to his defendants in the same prison.

In the meantime, the Nicaraguan regime released a 21-page document which it sent to the diplomatic corps and the international press in which it warned that it was continuing to investigate the presidential candidate’s alleged “cases”. Christian Chamorro –under house arrest since June 2– with independent media and journalists, including his brother, the influential journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro.

The report, entitled “Nicaragua: in defense of national sovereignty and the rule of law», Assures that the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation for Reconciliation and Democracy (FVBCH) and its former director Christian Chamorro “Received tens of millions of dollars from the American people through USAID, NED, IRI and other US government agencies ”.

These funds “were then transferred via corporate and personal accounts to members of the Chamorro family, including his brother Carlos Fernando Chamorro (CINCO, Confidential) and his uncle Jaime Chamorro Cardenal (La Prensa) “, as well as a dozen independent television channels, radio stations and digital platforms, mentioned in detail in the document.

According to the same text, those arrested this month (13 opposition leaders and two former FBCH employees) are charged with “money laundering, fraud, treason or seditious conspiracy”.

He also pleaded for the cessation of the sanctions applied by the United States, the European Union (EU) and Canada, among others, against thirty officials and relatives of Ortega, considering them as “coercive and illegal measures” whose application “in times of pandemic, it elevates its illegality to the rank of a crime against humanity”.

Mexico expressed concern on Monday over actions against opponents and said in a brief message, which the Foreign Ministry posted on its Twitter account, that “He conveyed to the Nicaraguan government his concern for the integrity and freedom of detainees.

The Acting Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the United States Department of State, Julie Chung, on Sunday asked the OAS to send a “clear signal” to Nicaragua, where, she said, there is a “campaign of terror” with the arrests of various political leaderss, including four presidential candidates by the opposition, in recent days.

“Ortega-Murillo’s campaign of terror continues this weekend with more arbitrary arrests. OAS members must send a clear signal this week: enough repression ”, declared the diplomat in a message addressed to the media by the American embassy in Managua.

“The region cannot sit back and wait and see who will be the next jailed opponent,” he added.

With AP information

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