Daniel Ortega accuses the imprisoned candidates of being criminals, coup plotters and US agents
Nicaragua The Nicaraguan odyssey of the Chamorro family
Humberto Ortega,
commander-in-chief of
the Sandinista Popular Army
during the first stage of the revolutionary government of Nicaragua, has called on his brother, the caudillo
Daniel,
to release presidential candidates and opponents imprisoned during the June offensive.
"If we want to contribute to peace, it must be, through a political measure that the president has in his hands, so that they are released," the former defense minister told
CNN
from
Costa Rica,
where he lives.
The oldest of the Ortegas believes that decreeing a pardon or amnesty would send a "great message" that would prove that "progress is being made in the right direction for the international community to take into account."
The retired general went further by claiming "that all the detainees, the last and also the first, be at home in jail while this investigation is being carried out," as a preliminary step for "more or less acceptable elections."
Humberto became the key man in the Army between
1979 and 1995,
including the first five years of the
Violeta Barrios
government
,
during which time he insisted on building an armed forces that were independent from politicians and professionalized. After his brother's return to power in 2006, both began to distance themselves, something that was notoriously confirmed during the popular rebellion of 2018, when he demanded that his brother advance the elections and dismantle the paramilitaries. These
Sandinista brigades
acted in collusion with the
police
in the government repression, with more than 350 violent deaths and more than 2,000 injured.
Sandinismo keeps between
130 and 150 political prisoners
in its dungeons, including the twenty opponents of the offensive launched in June under the umbrella of the so-called
Guillotine Law.
Almost nothing is known about four presidential candidates (the economist
Juan Sebastián Chamorro,
the former
US
ambassador
Arturo Cruz,
the activist
Félix Maradiaga
and the journalist
Miguel Mora),
three former guerrilla commanders, dissidents, activists, businessmen and journalists imprisoned by the forces police, plus the candidate
Cristiana Chamorro,
kidnapped and held incommunicado in her own home.
"I am clear that (the detainees) are not terrorists,
they have not attempted against the stability of this country. They are simply opponents who have their views as I do. I have strongly and respectfully criticized the current government and not for I am now going to be classified as a terrorist or a traitor to the country, "Humberto Ortega vehemently denied.
The first to come to the fore to criticize Humberto Ortega's "unacceptable" proposal was
Vilma Núñez,
president of
the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh),
who in statements to
100% Noticias
accused the retired general of trying to make a good
impression
on God and with the devil.
"The people who are pardoned or amnesty are those who have been proven responsible or who are in process, which is not the case. Here what is possible is an immediate release, just as they were captured, they have to be removed immediately. Later this man (Daniel Ortega) will appear as the forgiven life, when he is the one who is committing such atrocity, "replied the renowned activist.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
Nicaragua
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