AA
Share
The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, through state-controlled propaganda media, released a series of photos of political prisoner Yerri Estrada during a visit from his wife. He had been missing since August 13, 2025, following his return from a medical brigade at the Japan-Nicaragua Friendship Departmental Hospital in Granada.
“Images of the visit to the Nicaraguan coup supporter Yerri Gustavo Estrada Ruiz by his spouse Xóchilt Natalia Castil Velásquez, Wednesday, September 3, 2025,” read the captions of the photos, made public nine days after the visit.
The dictatorship has yet to clarify why the young man is detained, although they label him a “coup supporter,” a term the Sandinista regime uses to refer to opponents, under which dozens of political prisoners have been unjustly convicted.
The U.S. Department of State had requested information about Estrada’s whereabouts, as had members of the Costa Rican legislature, since the young man also holds Costa Rican nationality, according to his mother, Rosa Ruiz.
Three weeks ago the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship arrested, brutally tortured and finally made Dr. Yerri Estrada, a dedicated doctor, disappear after a morning spent providing medical services to a local community. His “crime”? Defending freedom during… pic.twitter.com/sz136QOH6K
– Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (@WHAAsstSecty) September 10, 2025
His mother had raised the alarm that the doctor from Leon had been missing since his detention and feared he might be tortured in prison.
Detained at Granada Hospital
The last thing Estrada’s mother knew was that her son had been instructed to report to the hospital administration as soon as he returned from a medical mission — which he did. In that office, officers from the National Police were waiting to detain him.
“They arrested him there, handcuffed him, and put him into one of the two patrol cars,” Estrada’s mother explained. He had been at the hospital completing his medical residency.
Police Came to León Even Though He Was Arrested in Granada
Surveillance had been constant, says the 30-year-old doctor’s mother. “They would come to the house once or twice a week. It wasn’t violent, but they always asked how he was doing, what he was doing, and he would tell them he was studying,” Rosa Ruiz recalled.
He would tell me, she said, “Mom, I’m used to them coming and seeing that I’m not doing anything wrong. That I’m not involved in any political matter.” Two days after being arrested in Granada, a police officer even came to look for him at his home in León.
“Apparently, the León Police didn’t know he had already been arrested in Granada,” his mother added.
Estrada was one of 33 political prisoners who remain in “enforced disappearance,” according to the latest report from the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners, updated through August 30, 2025. Currently, the regime holds 73 political prisoners.
