Three months before the elections, the Nicaraguan dictatorship decreed for the seventh time the arrest of an opposition presidential candidate. Noel Viadurre was under house arrest this Saturday (24), as was the journalist and political commentator Jaime Arellano.
In a statement, the National Police said that the arrest of the two men was decreed on the basis of Law 1055, also called “defense of the rights of peoples to independence, sovereignty and self-determination for peace. “. Assented to in December, the law is identified by international bodies as a legal device to persecute opponents of Daniel Ortega’s regime.
Viadurre and Arellano were both summoned to testify before the prosecution this Saturday morning (24) and were placed under house arrest on charges of “undermining the sovereignty” of the country.
On July 6, opponent Medardo Mairena and four other peasant and student leaders were arrested for “inciting foreign interference, calling for intervention and applause” for sanctions against Nicaragua.
In total, there are already 28 opponents of the regime, from different sectors of society, detained under Law 1 055, the first being journalist Cristiana Chamorro, on June 2. Former ambassador Arturo Cruz, academician Félix Maradiaga, economist Juan Sebastián Chamorro, cousin of Cristiana, and Miguel Mora, founder and owner of the television channel 100% Noticias, were also arrested.
Arellano told La Prensa newspaper he was questioned for about an hour about his political comments on radio and television programs. One of the comments was a critique of President Ortega’s July 19 speech. “They didn’t like it because I said it was wrong for the president to repeat twice that an armed people will never be crushed.”
For the political commentator, all those who oppose the Ortega regime are closely watched by the operatives of the regime and intimidation is a strategy so that the population does not go to the elections.