Over Thirty Detained in Raid Against Opponents in Nicaragua

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Over 30 people were detained by the Nicaraguan police, most temporarily, during a raid against opponents on Saturday in different parts of the country, which has been experiencing a deep sociopolitical crisis since 2018.

The majority of the detained were members of the opposition coalition ‘Coalición Nacional’, which includes four political parties and three dissident movements, which President Daniel Ortega calls “coup leaders”.

“Today a serious situation of harassment, intimidation, persecution and arbitrary detentions by the Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo dictatorship against members of the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy has been reported in different parts of the country,” publicly denounced the organization’s young leader Max Jerez, who was detained by the Nicaraguan police for at least one hour.

Among the leaders of the Coalición Nacional who were temporarily detained are the executive director of the Alianza Cívica, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, the leader of the Unidad Nacional Azul y Blanco, Félix Maradiaga, the leader of the Movimiento Campesino, Medardo Mairena, the president of the Partido Restauración Democrática (PRD), Saturnino Cerrato, and the president of the Fuerza Democrática Nicaragüense (FDN), Luis Fley.

This group was detained some 60 kilometers south of Managua as they left a meeting between dissident representatives, which the police had tried to block earlier in the day when they surrounded the original meeting venue, according to the Alianza Civica.

The arrests and police raids occurred in the departments of Carazo, Granada, Managua, Rivas, and Chinandega, on the Pacific coast, but also in Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia, and Somoto, located in the north, as well as in Juigalpa (center), and Nueva Guinea (southeast), according to various reports from opposition organizations.

This is the largest raid against opponents conducted by the police since last July, according to data from the group Monitoreo Azul y Blanco, which records incidents related to the Nicaragua crisis.

By mid-week, the number of “political prisoners” in Nicaragua rose to 104, of which 94 were arrested or recaptured over the past two years, according to Monitoreo Azul y Blanco.

The Nicaraguan conflict, which began with mass protests against Ortega in April 2018, but ended with armed attacks by government forces, has left hundreds of people dead, imprisoned, or missing.

Data from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) show that at least 328 people were killed as a result of the government attacks, while local organizations estimate that 684 people were killed and Ortega acknowledges 200 deaths, claiming that he was defending himself against a “failed coup d’état”.

Source: infobae