Nicaragua: Hugo Torres, opponent of Daniel Ortega, dies in prison

The family did not provide information on the circumstances of death, but the announcement announces that “more information” will be communicated “later”.

Le Monde with AFP

It was a former hero of Sandinist guerrilla, now opposing President Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega. Hugo Torres died in detention Saturday, February 12 at the age of 73, announced his family in an appearance published by the Opposition platform blue and white (UNAB).

The family did not provide information on the circumstances or causes of death, but the announcement announces that “more information” will be communicated “later”.

Arrest before Elections

Hugo Torres had been arrested and imprisoned in June 2021. He had been extracted in December of the formidable El Chipote Prison to be hospitalized, according to relatives.

He was vice-president of the renovating democratic union (UNAMOS), from 1995 of a current of the Sandinist party today in power, disagree with Daniel Ortega. He had been one of the leading players of the fight against the dictatorship of Somoza and had conducted a guerrilla action to release prisoners, including Daniel Ortega himself.

General retirement, he had been imprisoned as part of the arrests launched last year against 46 opponents. These raids were ordered a few months before the November elections which allowed Daniel Ortega to be elected for a fourth consecutive term, without a weight opponent, they had been arrested or forced to exile.

The opponents arrested are under conspiracy, betrayal or infringement of the country’s integrity. Eighteen of them were convicted by Nicaraguan justice over the last two weeks, and seven sentenced sentences were imposed on 8 to 10 years in prison.

“Brutal dictatorship. and criminal “

According to the old Sandinist guerrilla and opponent to the Monica Baltodano government, in exile, General Torres died in detention at the hospital. “We deeply deplore the death of a hero of the struggles against dictatorships that dominated Nicaragua, the dictatorship of Somoza, and now that of Ortega, which is a brutal and criminal dictatorship,” she told the Channel 100 Noticias television channel, broadcast on the Internet from exile.

The UNAMOS party denounced in January the deterioration of the health of his imprisoned vice-president and had required in vain to the government to give information on his state of health.

/Media reports.