The former Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua, Víctor Tinoco and the student leader Max Jerez were sentenced on Monday February 21 to 13 years in prison for “violation of national integrityduring trials against opponents of Daniel Ortega’s government, according to a humanitarian organization.
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Both will no longer have the right to hold public office during this period, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) said on its Twitter account. Victor Tinoco, 69, is a former comrade-in-arms of President Ortega’s ex-guerrilla Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN, left), who overthrew the dictatorship in 1979. Between 1981 and 1990, he was deputy foreign minister before distancing himself from the head of state and becoming one of his main opponents.
Max Jerez, a political science student at the Polytechnic University (Upoli), took part in negotiations aimed at ending the political crisis sparked by the 2018 mass protests, which left 355 people dead, according to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. man (IACHR). For the government, it was a coup attempt.
21 opponents sentenced
The trials, which are taking place behind closed doors, of 46 opponents, including seven presidential candidates, began on February 1. President Ortega accuses them of having plotted to overthrow him, with the support of Washington. All are being prosecuted under a 2020 law that considers such acts to be “treason“. The majority of them were arrested last year before the holding of the presidential election won by Daniel Ortega for the fourth consecutive time. To date, at least 21 opponents have been sentenced, including 15 to prison terms ranging from 8 to 13 years.
One of the defendants, the former guerrilla and former comrade in arms of President Hugo Torres, 73, died on February 12 in hospital, where he had been transferred from prison. Three other opponents, including presidential candidate Arturo Cruz, were transferred to house arrest on Saturday for health reasons. Relatives of imprisoned opponents and human rights defenders have been denouncing the poor state of health of detainees for months. Weakened by the little bad food they receive, they lose their teeth, suffer from memory loss and fainting, depression, while they do not have access to the medical care their condition requires, denounce those who were able to visit them.