Marcos Antonio Sánchez Hidalgo suffered two strokes in the cell of the La Modelo Penitentiary System in less than 15 days. The first, on May 24, and the second, on June 5. The political prisoner was left with very marked consequences: he can barely walk, because he drags his right foot, and the hand on the same side is paralyzed. It is his fellow captives who not only help him move, but also demand medical attention for the 48-year-old man from the jailers of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. But the prisoners’ plea has been ignored until the publication of this article.
“He is seriously ill and his life is in danger,” denounced the Group of United Political Abductees through a statement released with urgency and a tone of desperation. “The authorities of the prison system have not provided him with adequate medical attention, limiting themselves to treating him in the prison clinic, where one of the doctors literally said that he had suffered two strokes.” […]. We demand specialized medical care from the prison authorities, reminding them that Marcos’s life is their responsibility, since he is in their custody and must be treated with respect due to the inherent dignity of the human being.
Two days later, through another statement, relatives of the 141 political prisoners currently held by the Sandinista regime in Nicaraguan prisons raised a more alarming cry: “Our prisoners are dying in prisons and no one seems to care about them.”
Marvin Vargas, who has been in prison for thirteen years and is considered by human rights organizations to be the regime’s first political prisoner, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He also does not receive specialized medical care and his health is failing. Other prisoners of conscience with disorders are Walter Balmaceda, a chronically ill person who currently “has a big ball in his stomach,” and needs to be evaluated and operated on. While Ricardo Cortez Dávila, who spent several years in an isolation cell, has gone blind, family members denounce.
At the request of the Legal Defense Unit (UDJ), an organization that works to defend political prisoners and accompany their families, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures to nine political prisoners. The inter-American organization considers that these people “are in a serious and urgent situation, since their rights to life and personal integrity face a risk of irreparable damage.”
“The requesting party (UDJ) stated that the beneficiaries face violence committed by prison officers and that they are in unhealthy and inadequate detention conditions. They do not have access to adequate medical care, which aggravates chronic diseases, and they suffer constant sleep deprivation and psychological torture,” reads the document issued by the international organization. “Likewise, they would be legally vulnerable due to the lack of communication with the external environment and the absence of an effective legal defense. For its part, the State has not presented a response to the IACHR.”
The worst: oblivion, say relatives
Apart from the health situation of the political prisoners, the relatives denounce in the statement that the worst thing experienced in the regime’s prisons is “forgetfulness.” The political prisoners expressed their “desperation and concern” to their relatives, since on each visit they ask if there are negotiations or campaigns for their release. “When they find out that none of that is happening, they fall into an awkward silence.”
Since Bishop Rolando Álvarez was freed and exiled to Rome along with other Catholic religious last January, the presidential couple got rid of the political prisoners with greater public exposure. However, the regime maintained the “revolving door effect”, that is, they continued to capture citizens considered critics and opponents, until reaching 140 arbitrary arrests to date.
However, these new political prisoners are people without public projection, “anonymous”, denounce their relatives, which has influenced the demands for their release to be lukewarm and not belligerent as were the campaigns surrounding the release of the group of prisoners. politicians made up of presidential candidates, businessmen, student leaders, political activists, farmers, among others.
“We urgently call on international organizations and ask them to join our clamor, our desperate cry for freedom for the political prisoners in Nicaragua. Don’t leave us alone; The disease and the prison regime are consuming our loved ones,” the family members cry out.
“We family members feel that as soon as Monsignor Álvarez left, no one says anything, as if Monsignor Álvarez was the only political prisoner in Nicaragua. When the bishop was imprisoned there was campaign after campaign on networks, but now everything is quiet, few say anything,” one of the relatives who signed the statement, but who requested anonymity, told Morning Express. “We people who are in Nicaragua can’t do anything, because they’re just going to arrest us there, but outside the country there are hundreds of people and no one says anything.”
In its latest update of repressive patterns, between the period of February and April 2024, the Legal Defense Unit not only identifies forced disappearance due to concealment of whereabouts as a recurring practice of state authorities, but also the conditions in the cells of political prisoners have worsened.
“The presence of pests has increased in some cells and the drinking water they consume is contaminated. The indiscriminate use of baking soda in food rations is reported, the psychological torture has been redoubled, at the same time that extortions arose from relatives with the false promise of freeing their loved ones in exchange for large sums of money,” denounces the UDJ.
Follow all the information from El PAÍS América in Facebook and xor in our weekly newsletter.