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A still-undetermined number of political prisoners — CONFIDENCIAL has confirmed eleven so far, six women and five men — were released on Saturday, November 29, 2025 in Nicaragua and placed under “department-level house arrest.” This means they must regularly sign in at their corresponding police station and cannot leave their cities.
Several among the eleven released political prisoners are over 60 years old or have chronic illnesses that were worsened by the conditions of captivity, sources from the National Penitentiary System confirmed to CONFIDENCIAL.
There is still no official list of those released, and the National Police has not issued any public statement. However, some of the political prisoners whose identities have been confirmed include: former collaborators of the Diocese of Matagalpa Carmen Sáenz and Lesbia Gutiérrez, both over 60 years old and held as political prisoners since August 2024, who had been considered victims of enforced disappearance.
Also among the released prisoners of conscience and opposition figures are Alejandro Hurtado Díaz, 57, arbitrarily arrested in January 2025, and Eliseo Castro Baltodano, older than 60.
Castro Baltodano completed his sentence on September 12, 2025, but remained a political prisoner since his arrest in September 2019. In 2021, he suffered a stroke that left him incapacitated, and he had been kept under guard at the Lenin Fonseca Hospital in Managua.
Businesswoman Evelyn Matus Hernández, a political prisoner since June 2024, was also confirmed among those placed under “department-level house arrest.”
Another of those released is Evelyn Guillén, 53, who was detained on August 5, 2023, after holding up a printed photograph of former political prisoner Bishop Rolando Álvarez during a religious procession and placing a headband on her forehead that read “Viva Nicaragua libre.” Bishop Álvarez was later released from prison, stripped of his nationality, and expelled to Rome.
Guillén was sentenced in a sham trial to eight years in prison on charges of undermining national sovereignty and treason. She refused to be banished to Guatemala on September 5, 2024, because she would not leave her children behind in Nicaragua.
Other political opponents who were released and sent home are Valmore Valladares and Mauricio Chavarría.
Political prisoners in “enforced disappearance”
Until this release, there were more than 70 political prisoners in Nicaragua, 32 of whom had been held in conditions of enforced disappearance, according to national human rights organizations. Their families were unable to bring them food, medicine, or visit them at all.
Among those 32 political prisoners, the regime released Carmen Sáenz, Lesbia Gutiérrez, and Alejandro Hurtado Díaz, according to information confirmed by CONFIDENCIAL.
