Daniel Ortega’s regime arrested the opposition Miguel Mora: the fifth presidential candidate jailed

Journalist Miguel Mora, Nicaraguan opposition presidential candidate, was arrested on Sunday evening, according to the police, as part of an investigation into alleged crimes against “independence and sovereignty”.

Meanwhile, the digital television channel 100% News, whom Mora led until 2020, reported that police officers raided the home of the communicator and his wife, also journalist Verónica Chávez, located in an area southeast of Managua, the capital.

This is the second time that the journalist has been detained by the police. The first took place on December 21, 2018, when government forces raided the TV station and arrested Mora and the press secretary. Lucia Pineda Ubau. Both spent nearly six months in prison, accused of “incitement to hatred”.

Mora is the fifth opposition presidential candidate detained in Nicaragua since June 2, when the police arrested journalist Cristiana Chamorro, who remains under house arrest. The other three are former diplomat Arturo Cruz, political scientist Félix Maradiaga and economist Juan Sebastián Chamorro.

On the other hand, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an organ of the OAS, urged the Ortega regime to “immediately” end the repression of opponents and to release the detainees, after noting a “serious” escalation against and against social leaders.

“Commission urges the Nicaraguan state to immediately end persecution and arbitrary detention, and immediately release all those detained“, Said this entity of the Organization of American States (OAS) in a statement.

Ortega, in power since 2007, has been facing a political crisis since April 2018 triggered by massive protests calling for his departure. These demonstrations left 328 dead, 2,000 injured, 1,600 detainees and more than 103,000 exiles, according to MESENI, the IACHR special group to monitor the situation in Nicaragua.

“Since the onset of the crisis in 2018, the human rights situation in the country has continued to deteriorate, in a context of widespread impunity and prolonged violation of the rule of law”, Subrayó the CIDH.

In recent weeks, to the hundred people who have been deprived of their liberty for political reasons, there have been 16 arrests of presidential candidates, social activists, businessmen and former guerrillas of the Sandinista revolution who have overthrown dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, of which Ortega was one of its leaders.

The series of arrests in Nicaragua began on June 2 with the arrest of presidential candidate Cristiana Chamorro, daughter of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997), accused of money laundering.

Also detained are the former diplomat Arturo Cruz, the political scientist Félix Maradiaga and the economist Juan Sebastián Chamorro, cousin of Cristiana. All are possible opponents of Ortega, who is expected to run for a fourth consecutive term in elections scheduled for November 7.

The IACHR recalled that with the exception of Cristiana Chamorro, all were arrested under “Law No. 1055 on the defense of the rights of peoples to independence, sovereignty and self-determination for peace. , A contested initiative that punishes people who are supposed to promote foreign intervention. .

The Commission also denounced a “disproportionate use of force” by the police at the time of the arrests., and said that many relatives of the detainees did not have information about places of detention. In addition, he pointed out a lack of legal guarantees for them.

In particular, she expressed her concern about the health of José Pallais, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs under the government of Violeta Chamorro, arrested on June 9. This opponent of Ortega “would have suffered a decompensation and would be in a delicate state”, he declared.

According to the IACHR to date, more than 124 people are arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in Nicaragua.

With information from the AP and AFP

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