"The threat was that if Nicaragua got up, they would kill us" • El Nuevo Diario

The so-called Nicaraguan "civic insurrection" left hundreds of jailed protesters and a message of "welcome": "If, in some cases, Nicaragua was resurrected civically, we would kill without thinking, all those who were retained. "

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These are the words of a student who spent 8 months in jail for protesting against the government and who was recently released, Jorge Zapata, and who told Acan-Efe after completing the interview, as forgetting the essential, amidst the perplexity that followed the prison.

Zapata and 15 other students heard the threat when they entered the "La Modelo" prison, the largest and safest in Nicaragua, after being beaten during interrogations at "El Chipote ", the police headquarters that has been denounced as a torture center. .

The student confirms the threat and adds: "We think that they are capable (…) they have the" Fuga law ", that if you leave the system (penitentiary), they have the right to kill , their "Ley Fuga" is to kill "

The 20-year-old said he was scared, especially for his family, because he was convinced that he could have died from a shot while he had survived attacks from his home. police and parapolics including, according to him, rocket launchers RPG 7, July 13 at the University. The autonomous community of Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua) and the parish Divina Misericordia, where two students died.

Zapata, one of the 762 "political prisoners" in the opposition, whom the government calls "terrorists" or "coup d'état" – adds those who claim that among the "combined forces" of the government, there are foreigners, Cubans in particular.

He says he saw one himself. "Friday, July 13, yes, I was with an M-16 who was shooting like crazy."

In the harshest part of the crisis, the violence has led protesters to face artillery shells against government war weapons, portable rocket launchers, AK rifles, PKM guns, M16 rifles and Sniper Dragunov rifles, according to organizations such as Amnesty International

The violence left 325 dead, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

The worst of the prison is not the dungeons where the air and the water are lacking, nor the food that is absorbed, but which contain "glbad, aluminum, pieces of iron and feet of badroach He said.

Some prisoners evacuate blood, explains Zapata, who has refrained from eating the food served at "La Modelo", only those sent by their families.

Poor conditions and beatings of prisoners whenever there is a protest or an envoy from the United Nations

The American states (OAS), the European Union or the United States, in an attempt to find a solution to the crisis, are provoking violent reactions, he said.

On February 19, the detainees threw bags of drink powder and soap to avoid mistreating a group of prisoners. The jailers then sent stones to the cells.

Early in the morning of March 7, they learned that the prison cell "El Infiernillo", the worst in the country, was asking for help because the jailers had fired tear gas into the interior and closed the windows. The others broke the roof and lifted the Nicaraguan flag, which the authorities reject, as does the national anthem.

"It's something they do not like completely, that's what I do not understand, because they are supposed to be Nicaraguans like all of us," says the young man, confirming that there are flags in the Sandinist National Liberation Front (FSLN) in the prison.

Zapata was sentenced in November last year to 16 years in prison for "terrorism". When asked if he is a terrorist, he responds brutally: "At no time." He says he wants to see a different Nicaragua, without corruption, "without so much at the convenience of the government".

He doubts the outside world at the concrete of the prison, at the new forms of protest, that he is still imprisoned while at home or that it is natural that the mattress on his bed s & # 39; It sinks a little at bedtime.