(CNN Spanish) – The Nicaraguan National Police detained this Monday the former deputy for the Constitutional Liberal Party and former first lady of the Republic, María Fernanda Flores Lanzas.
A statement from the National Police announcing the arrest says that Flores Lanzas remains at his home in police custody, in accordance with Article 1 of Law No. 1055 “Law for the Defense of the Rights of the People to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-determination to peace”.
María Fernanda Flores Lanzas, former first lady of Nicaragua, in a 2020 image (Photo by INTI OCON / AFP via Getty Images)
The Police reported that Flores Lanzas is being investigated for allegations of “carrying out acts that threaten independence, sovereignty and self-determination, incitement to foreign interference in internal affairs, request for military interventions, organization with financing from foreign powers to carry out acts of terrorism and destabilization, proposing and administering economic, commercial and financial blockades of operations against the country and its institutions, demanding, exalting and applauding the imposition of sanctions against the State of Nicaragua and its citizens, and injuring the supreme interests of the nation. The police statement does not detail the specific facts for which Flores Lanzas is being investigated.
CNN tried to reach the former congresswoman, but she did not respond.
The National Assembly removed Flores Lanzas – the wife of former President Arnoldo Alemán – from her status as a deputy of the Constitutionalist Liberal Party on November 26. The dismissal request was promoted by legislator María Haydee Ozuna, a former political ally of the former president. Ozuna is also president of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party, the same party as Flores Lanzas.
Police arrest renowned sports journalist
In a second press release, and without giving details of the place and circumstance, the National Police reported that they also arrested sports journalist Miguel Ángel Mendoza Urbina on Monday. The document says that it is being investigated for allegations of “carrying out acts that threaten independence, sovereignty and self-determination, and incite foreign interference in the internal affairs of the country.”
For its part, the Nicaraguan Union of Independent Journalists and Communicators (PCIN), through its Facebook page, denounced the arrest of Mendoza Urbina, saying that “he was kidnapped by the police a few minutes ago. Mendoza’s whereabouts are unknown. We demand their immediate release.
The journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro denounces the search of his home
On Monday night, the journalist and director of El Confidencial Carlos Fernando Chamorro denounced through his social networks a raid on his house in the Intermezzo del Bosque Chamorro urbanization and his wife, Desiré Elizondo, were not at the address at that moment.
“What are the Ortega police looking for four hours in the house of a journalist, where there are no weapons? Will the works of my father Pedro Joaquín Chamorro be taken as a “body of crime”: Bloodline: Los Somozas; The Diary of a Prisoner; Political Journal; and El Periodista? ”asked Chamorro.
CNN has asked the National Police about the operation, but has not responded.
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights CENIDH said on its Twitter account: “The Ortega Murillo regime ordered a search of the house of Carlos Fernando Chamorro, director of Confidencial, and Desiré Elizondo. It is clear that the nights of terror and brutal repression in Nicaragua will not stop. We alert the international community, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.