Persecution in Nicaragua: the police of the Daniel Ortega regime took over the editorial staff of the newspaper La Prensa

After the newspaper La Prensa had to be forced to stop its print release under pressure from the Daniel Ortega regime in Nicaragua, the security forces of the Sandinista government entered the newsroom of the media and they do not allow journalists to move freely.

This is what the newspaper denounced on its Twitter account: “Police patrols are inside the premises of LA PRENSA. They don’t let the employees who were in the offices use their phones ”.

“In the LA PRENSA newsroom there are journalists who have been held incommunicado because the police did not allow them to access their electronic media», Reported the media.

As he could know Infobae, security forces they cut off Internet access, shut down electricity, and shut down all of the company’s servers.

Although many journalists from Nicaragua’s oldest newspaper worked from home, a small group of directors and editors were in the newsroom.

In dialogue with various media, the journalist from The Hans Lawrence Ramírez press, argues that the editor, Fabián Medina Sánchez, also a collaborator of Infobae, was “one of them was in the newspaper. He left all the WhatsApp groups we had in common. We assume he is being held”. On the other hand, the general manager, Juan Lorenzo Chamorro Holmann, it is also on site.

The rest of the reporters in the newsroom approached the newspaper as soon as the news broke, but they do not have access, the gates being closed.

At the same time, he assured that the intervention of the security forces “This is yet another attack on the freedom of the press and of expression, especially the one which has consistently denounced human rights violations and has been in favor of democracy.”

Nicaragua’s oldest newspaper La Prensa ceased circulation on Friday in its print version because the Government, through the General Directorate of Customs, maintains its role.

La Prensa, founded in 1926, denounced on its printed cover that “the dictatorship», Referring to the Government of Daniel Ortega Ortega, in power since 2007, “He retains our role, but cannot hide the truth.”

“Once again, the dictatorship of Ortega Murillo (Vice President Rosario Murillo) the role was refused to us. As long as they do not release our supplies we will not be able to circulate in the printed edition, but they won’t shut us up“said the newspaper, the one with the biggest circulation in Nicaragua.

The influential Nicaraguan newspaper explained that “while our raw material is released, La Prensa’s website and social networks will continue to provide news and denounce the regime’s abuses against democracy ”.

The Government, through the General Directorate of Customs, He has yet to refer to La Prensa’s complaint.

“La Prensa is running out of paper to continue to circulate at the national level, because the General Directorate of Customs once again, the (imported) raw material belonging to this company is seized in a tax warehouse“And that doesn’t explain why he didn’t hand it over,” he said.

The newspaper recalled that on February 6, 2020, Customs cleared 92 tons of paper after having “kept him kidnapped for more than 500 days, that caused heavy economic losses to this company ”.

“This new retention, when the company It is not in the capacity to maintain large stocks of raw materials, it led to this Thursday, August 12, the last copies of this newspaper to circulate in the country until the publication of the newspaper.“, a point.

He added that the retention of the newspaper also affects the popular newspaper Hoy, also owned by Editorial La Prensa, “Who could no longer circulate this Thursday.”

According to the newspaper, “the newspaper was seized because the customs authorities do not approve the process of request for exemption carried out by La Prensa since last July 26”, according to article 68 of the Political Constitution, which exempts the import of paper and other media raw materials.

According to the law, the authorities have a maximum of 10 days to respond to demand and “this time 18 days have passed since the start of the process,” he noted.

The Secretary General of the Board of Directors of La Prensa, Juan Lorenzo Holmann, stated that he had sent two formal letters and an email to the Director of the General Directorate of Customs, Eddy medrano, to report the situation and received no response.

On March 2, the newspaper La Prensa filled in 95 years since its first publication.

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