Managua Nicaragua.- The judicial authorities of Nicaragua sentenced this Thursday to eight and 10 years in prison three relatives of the exiled opponent Javier Álvarez, in the first sentence handed down in the country against relatives of a politically persecuted man.
Álvarez, a 69-year-old economist critical of the government of Daniel Ortega, told AP that his wife Jeannine Horvilleur, 63, and their daughter, Ana Carolina Àlvarez Horvilleur, 43, were sentenced to 8 years in prison, while that his son-in-law Félix Roiz received a 10-year prison sentence.
The crimes charged were conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news.
The three were arrested on September 13 in Managua, when the Police showed up at the family’s home to capture Javier Álvarez, a low-profile opponent, who had already escaped to Costa Rica.
The two women have dual French and Nicaraguan nationality, but that condition did not serve to reverse the criminal proceedings against them.
Álvarez said that Judge Félix Salmerón accepted the sentences requested by the Prosecutor’s Office, despite the fact that his relatives were not involved in any political activity.
According to those close to the Álvarez family, the French Embassy in Managua tried unsuccessfully to arrange for the release of the two Franco-Nicaraguan citizens from the day of their arrest.
Javier Álvarez reiterated that his relatives “are innocent” and that they were arrested and sentenced “to take revenge on me” for not being able to stop him.
The three are imprisoned in the El Chipote police jail, where dozens of opposition leaders have been arrested since May 2021, as part of the more than 230 “political prisoners” reported by the Opposition.
The Ortega government has intensified the persecution of its political adversaries, and apparently it is no longer satisfied with taking them into exile, but is now accusing their relatives through criminal proceedings.
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) has described these cases as “a new pattern of kidnapping for extortion” used by the Government, since they “take their relatives hostage” to force the capture or surrender of exiled opponents.
Judge Salmerón also sentenced former presidential hopefuls Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro, peasant leaders Medardo Mairena and Pedro Mena, businessman José Adán Aguerri, and opposition political leaders Violeta Granera, José Pallais and Tamara Davila, among others.
Nicaragua has been experiencing a serious political crisis since the social uprising of 2018, when the repression by the Police and government paramilitaries against civilian protesters left 355 dead, more than 2,000 injured, 1,600 detained at different times and at least 100,000 exiled, according to human rights organizations.
