Persecution in Nicaragua: Vice President and First Lady threatened press and called journalists “magpies and terrorists” talk

The vice-president and first lady of the Nicaraguan regime, Rosario Murillo, criticized the press for “having invented everything to sow terror” and accused the journalists of being “evil”, “hypocrites”, “destroyers”, “criminals” and “communications terrorists”.

For human rights defenders, The Murillo attacks are “a reliable demonstration” of who is responsible for the “state of terror” that exists in the country.

“You also have to protect yourself from those talkative magpies whose feathers are full of hatred, because they ooze hatred. This is how we see them, and this is how we repudiate them “Murillo said in statements to the Nicaraguan channel Channel 4. “Every day they invent anything to terrorize people (…). They always want to instill fear, ”he warned. “And our people know how they lie. Our people know how evil, hypocritical, destructive, criminals, terrorists and communications terrorists are too “added.

“These are spaces of mass destruction” which “have a single perspective, a single imperialist and colonialist approach and which respond to the interests and designs of the colonialists and imperialists,” he continued in his accusations.

Gonzalo Carrión, of the Nicaraguan human rights collective Never Again, criticized this “outrage at the highest level” of freedom of expression and of the press in Nicaragua. “This shows the inhuman nature of his regime,” Carrión stressed, cited by the portal Confidential.

Two journalists and presidential candidates, Cristiana Chamorro and Miguel Mora, were recently jailed and three others, Julio López, Sergio Marín and Carlos Fernando Chamorro, have left the country for fear of being arrested.

Other Miradas, an alliance of independent media from Central America and Mexico, also denounced what it sees as “various forms of persecution of Nicaraguan journalism by the government of (President Daniel) Ortega”, and recalled that “The number of journalists in exile is increasing”.

They cite a law that lists “traitors to the fatherland”

The Ortega regime has passed a controversial law that criminalizes the press. The “Law for the Defense of the Rights of the People to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-determination for Peace” has been in force since last December.

This controversial law lists “traitors to the fatherland” and prevents them from running for public office..

Nicaraguan police arrest opposition presidential candidates Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro and Miguel Mora, whom he accuses of “treason”.

In addition, two former vice-chancellors, two former Sandinista historic dissident guerrillas, a business leader, a banker, a former deputy and former first lady, four opposition leaders, a journalist, two former NGO employees and a driver of Cristiana Chamorro.

So far, 21 people, including politicians and independent journalists, have been arrested in the latest crackdown.

Arrests of opponents they are given less than five months for the general elections of Nicaragua, to be held on November 7, during which Daniel Ortega, in power since 2007, is seeking a new re-election.

Another Chamorro

Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios was arrested on Friday evening on the charge of having committed acts undermining the sovereignty of Nicaragua, on the orders of the Ortega regime, as reported by the national police. The opposition politician is one of the sons of the former Nicaraguan president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997) and the murdered Nicaraguan hero and anti-Somoza journalist Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardena.

In addition is the brother of Christian presidential candidate Chamorro, who He has been under house arrest since June 2 and he is the figure of the opposition with the highest probability of winning the presidential elections next November.

Also from journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, one of the most critical voices of Daniel Ortega’s regime and winner of the 38 Ortega y Gasset Journalism Awards, who announced this week that he was to go into exile for the second time in three years, along with his wife, “to protect our freedom”, Amidst the wave of arrests that exists in Nicaragua.

Police led by Francisco Díaz, Ortega’s father-in-law, said the politician who belongs to the Citizens for Freedom (CxL) party, like other detained opposition leaders, is the subject of ‘investigation “for committing acts undermining independence, sovereignty and self-determination, inciting foreign interference in internal affairs and calling for military intervention”.

Also for “organize 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”.

In addition, for “having demanded, exalted and applauded the imposition of sanctions against the State of Nicaragua and its citizens, and having harmed the supreme interests of the nation”.

(with information from EP and EFE)

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