Sixth presidential candidate arrested in Nicaragua along with university leaders and the Campesino Movement

(CNN Spanish) – The Nicaraguan National Police reported this Tuesday, through a statement – without specifying the place or circumstances – that this Monday it detained the sixth presidential candidate Medardo Mairena Sequeira and the peasant leaders Freddy Navas López and Pedro Joaquín Mena Amador.

The police point out Mairena and the other peasant leaders as alleged “leaders of the murder of 4 fellow police officers and civilian citizens, kidnapping and injuries of 12 fellow police officers, in the municipality of Morrito, department of Río San Juan” and of those who call ” death blocks in the departments of Boaco, Chontales and Rio San Juan and Zelaya Central “, where according to the institution” they committed crimes of homicides, robbery with intimidation and kidnappings, extortions, rapes, destruction and multiple damages during which the government calls – the failed coup attempt in 2018 “.

According to the police statement, it was also reported the arrest of Lesther Lenín Alemán Alfaro and Max Isaac Jerez Meza, leaders of the Nicaraguan University Association (AUN), whom they point to as alleged “leaders of seizures and destruction of study centers. : the Polytechnic University (Upoli) and the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (Unan-Managua) “, where according to the institution they committed robberies with intimidation, kidnappings and serious injuries among other alleged crimes.

The National Police added that all detainees are being investigated for alleged acts against national sovereignty and inciting foreign interference in internal affairs of the country, in accordance with Law 1055, the “Law for the Defense of the Rights of the People to Independence, sovereignty and self-determination for peace “.

The Campesino Movement denounced the arrests this Monday, through its Twitter account, although without providing details: “Today they again kidnapped 4 main leaders of our movement: Pedro Mena, Medardo Mairena, Fredy Navas and Pablo Morales.”

Previous arrests

Mairena had been detained on July 13, 2018 and was released on June 11, 2019 through the Amnesty Law.

For his part, the peasant leader Navas, who was detained like Mairena, expressed through a video that he shared on his social networks before his arrest: “Believe me, one way or another one is already prepared and they even say that That chipote is better. In the other I spent two and a half months in an isolation cell, in the dark, naked, on a cement tile. In the other there are even mattresses, I don’t know if it will be true. The torture, the beatings, the psychological pressure, that was hard, but also there, God has no borders and your prayers come to one at the time “.

Before his arrest, Jerez, the president of the Nicaraguan University Alliance, reported through his Twitter account: “Right now, the regime’s police are entering the safe house where I am sheltered. Neither the repression nor the jail is going to stop the strength of the Nicaraguan people. We will continue and we will be free, there is still hope. “

Jerez published a video that he published on his social networks in which he expresses: “If you are watching this video, it is because I am detained by the dictatorship or I am incommunicado, thus adding to the long list of political prisoners of the Ortega regime,” he said. the student. In addition, he added: “This is the time to act, the dictatorship wants to end hope, we must continue together this fight for the freedom of the Nicaraguan people, let us not fall into despair, into immobilization.”

Prepared for “death or jail”

For his part, Alemán expressed in a video published on social networks that according to him he had prepared his family for two scenarios, death or jail. “In which I do insist, I am not a traitor to the country, because I have never done anything against Nicaraguans. Nor am I guilty of a crime that is imputed to me, I have not resorted to any strategy of violence. Nor have I acted outside the legal framework that the Constitution allows me, for that reason I am clean, so they would have me as an ornament in the jail scene, “he said.

The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), through its Twitter account, condemned on Monday what it considered new arbitrary arrests in what it called “another night of terror in Nicaragua.”

The National Police has arrested 21 opponents, including another 5 presidential candidates, business leaders, former guerrillas and leaders of the Blue and White Unit and the National Coalition, among whom 18 are being investigated for alleged acts against national sovereignty, although they have declared innocent.