Four contributors to the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa – including two drivers imprisoned since July 6 – were indicted last week in Nicaragua for “conspiracy”, announced on Tuesday the daily which publishes its articles on the internet from its exile in Costa Rica. Besides the two drivers, “arrested without any reason”an arrest warrant has been issued against a journalist and an administrative employee of the newspaper, exiled, indicates the editor-in-chief of La Prensa Eduardo Enriquez, without revealing the identity of the four people.
“Criminalization of journalistic work”
The indictment was pronounced on September 29 before a criminal court in Managua, specifies Eduardo Enriquez who denounces “a criminalization of independent journalistic work”. The newspaper La Prensa, the oldest in the country founded 95 years ago, last July transferred all of its staff to neighboring Costa Rica after the arrest of two of its drivers and searches at the homes of several of its journalists, photographers and employees. The premises of the opposition daily had been taken over by the police on August 13, 2021 under cover of an investigation for fraud and money laundering against its leaders. The manager of La PrensaJuan Lorenzo Holmann, has been detained since last year and was sentenced in April to nine years in prison for money laundering.
The newspaper’s headquarters in Managua will be transformed into “cultural Center”authorities announced in August. “The theft (of the newspaper’s headquarters) is consummated”, denounced the officials of La Prensa. More than 200 opponents are currently detained in Nicaragua, including seven who aspired to the candidacy for the presidential election of November 2021 won, in the absence of any serious opponent, by outgoing President Daniel Ortega. Re-elected for a fourth consecutive term, he accuses his opponents of conspiring to overthrow him with the support of Washington. In 2018, protests demanding his resignation were bloodily crushed. The unrest left at least 355 people dead, according to human rights organizations. The government reports 22 police officers killed.