The Nicaraguan opponents who are imprisoned in “El Chipote” and who are considered political prisoners by humanitarian organizations suffer from malnutrition and extreme weight loss, their relatives denounced on Monday.
“We are extremely alarmed by the drastic reduction in food rations after the last visit, reaching extremes incompatible with life“, affirmed the relatives in a statement read by Renata Holmann, daughter of Juan Lorenzo Holmann, general manager of the newspaper La Prensa, imprisoned for a year.
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“The increase in rations reported in our previous statement was not only not maintained, but was reduced more than ever, causing more malnutrition and extreme weight loss that has us extremely concerned,” they added.
We urgently demand the entry of human rights organizations to verify the situation of our relatives
Opposition leaders, students, peasants, businessmen, journalists and independent professionals, including seven dissidents who aspired to compete for the Presidency in the general elections, are being held in the “El Chipote” police prison, officially known as the Directorate of Judicial Assistance. last November.
The opponents, arrested between May and November 2021, were sentenced to between 7 and 13 years in prison for crimes considered “treason against the country” or money laundering.
The Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortegahas called them “traitors to the country”, “criminals” and “sons of bitches of the Yankee imperialists”.
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Request international visit
In the statement, the relatives explained that between last Friday and Sunday they visited their relatives in “El Chipote”, where they verified their situation.
“We urgently demand the increase in rations, as well as the improvement of the nutritional value in the food of our relatives,” they indicated.
“If the State does not have the capacity to provide adequate food, we reiterate our willingness to bring this food daily,” they added.
Likewise, they demanded that they be allowed to deliver food parcels weekly “and that they be able to manage them autonomously in their cells, not like now that they are administered discretionally and in small quantities, as is the case in the prisons of the Penitentiary System.”
They warned that the presence of diseases such as throat and stomach infections has increased inside the prison, and that their relatives do not receive specialized medical care.
Therefore, they “urgently demanded the entry of human rights organizations, the International Red Cross and the Commission of Independent Experts of the United Nations to the Directorate of Judicial Assistance and also in the different prisons of the Penitentiary System and police stations throughout the country, to verify the situation of our relatives.
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They denounce rights violations
On the other hand, they claimed that opponents are not allowed to be visited by their children or receive a call, “except in two specific cases and after hunger strikes” by two of their relatives.
“This violates not only the rights of political prisoners, but also the rights of their sons and daughters, which are protected by national and international laws and by the Children and Adolescents Code that was signed by the State of Nicaragua. “, they argued.
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They also demanded the regularization of visits, with the presence and participation of minor children and/or children with special needs; and the access and regularization of telephone calls or video calls and correspondence such as photographs, drawings and letters, which include relatives in exile.
They also demanded the entry of reading and writing material for their relatives, “as stated in the Mandela Rules and national and international laws,” as well as the Bible.
*With information from EFE
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