He was a former Sandinista guerrilla hero, now an opponent of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Hugo Torres died in detention on Saturday February 12 at the age of 73, his family announced in an announcement published by the opposition platform Blue and White Unit (UNAB).
The family did not provide information on the circumstances or the causes of death, but the announcement announces that “more information” will be communicated “later”.
Arrest before the elections
Hugo Torres had been arrested and imprisoned in June 2021. He had been extracted in December from the dreaded prison of El Chipote to be hospitalized, according to relatives.
He was vice-president of the opposition party Democratic Renovating Union (Unamos), which in 1995 came from a current of the Sandinista party now in power, in disagreement with Daniel Ortega. He had been one of the leading players in the fight against the Somoza dictatorship and had notably led a guerrilla action to free prisoners, including Daniel Ortega himself.
A retired general, he had been imprisoned in connection with the arrests carried out last year against 46 opponents. These raids were ordered a few months before the November elections which allowed Daniel Ortega to be elected for a fourth consecutive term, without any significant opponent, who had been arrested or forced into exile.
Opponents arrested are charged with conspiracy, treason or undermining the integrity of the country. Eighteen of them have been found guilty by the Nicaraguan courts in the past two weeks, and seven of those convicted have received sentences of 8 to 10 years in prison.
“Brutal and criminal dictatorship”
According to former Sandinista guerrilla and government opponent Monica Baltodano, in exile, General Torres died in hospital custody. “We deeply mourn the death of a hero of the struggles against the dictatorships that dominated Nicaragua, the dictatorship of Somoza, and now that of Ortega, which is a brutal and criminal dictatorship”she told the Channel 100 Noticias television channel, broadcast on the internet from exile.
The Unamos party had denounced in January the deterioration of the health of its imprisoned vice-president and had demanded in vain from the government to provide information on his state of health.