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The phrase that relatives of political prisoner Angélica Chavarría Altamirano have heard most often from the police over the past two years is: “Stop looking for her.” Amid the government’s silence regarding her whereabouts, the partner of the late retired Army general, Humberto Ortega, has been in a state of “forced disappearance” in Nicaragua for two years.
“The police have harassed family members and threatened them to stop looking for her and stop asking about her. If they don’t have her or won’t provide information, why are they threatening the family to stop looking for her?” asked attorney Yader Valdivia, a member of the Nicaragua Never Again Human Rights Collective.
Chavarría Altamirano was arrested by state agents on May 19, 2024, during a police operation against retired general Humberto Ortega Saavedra, brother of Daniel Ortega, after the former military chief gave interviews critical of Rosario Murillo and questioned the political direction of the country.
Since then, the regime has not publicly presented any proof that the political prisoner is alive; there is no verifiable judicial information, nor any details regarding the conditions of her detention.
“None of the women released from prison,” Valdivia emphasized, “has been able to see or confirm where Angélica Chavarría is. They have been in different cells, in different wings, and we have not been able to obtain any information about her.”
Chavarría Altamirano is one of 47 people – and one of only three women – recognized as political prisoners in Nicaragua, according to data from the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners.
The regime is targeting Angélica Chavarría
The complete lack of official information regarding his situation led first the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and subsequently the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court) to intervene on an urgent basis.
Both bodies concluded that the Nicaraguan government not only failed to fulfill its obligation to report on her whereabouts but also ignored international requests to clarify her legal status and ensure her physical safety.
In June 2025, the IACHR issued provisional measures in favor of Angélica Chavarría and other detainees deemed to be at “serious risk” due to their enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions.
The court ordered the State of Nicaragua to:
- Inform their family members and trusted attorneys “unequivocally” of their place of detention
- Ensure communication with their “trusted attorneys.”
- The State must refrain from “prosecuting and retaliating against family members.”
- Proceed with their “immediate release.”
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights noted that the case involves conditions of “extreme gravity and urgency” and that the prolonged lack of information regarding a person in state custody increases the risk of irreparable harm.
As of May 2026, the government has not publicly complied with any of these provisions.
“She is the woman who has been in a state of prolonged enforced disappearance for the longest period of time, longer than anyone else, among those who have been detained from 2018 to date (…) In her case, there is a sense of cruelty, and her family is also concerned about this silence,” Valvidia insisted.
The Police Raid and the Disappearance
According to the IACHR’s case file, police surrounded the home where Humberto Ortega and Angélica Chavarría lived in Managua and carried out an arrest operation.
Before being detained, Chavarría managed to send messages to family members warning them “of a possible arrest or that they might be placed under house arrest.” The IACHR also collected testimonies indicating that police officers seized computers and phones during the raid on the home.
Uncertainty regarding Chavarría Altamirano’s whereabouts increased even further following the death of Humberto Ortega, which occurred on September 30, 2024, while he was in state custody.
Humberto Ortega—who died in the early morning hours of September 30 at the age of 77—recorded an audio message during a call to CONFIDENCIAL from a cell phone he had hidden in his home, after the police seized all his communication devices during a raid on May 19.
“The stress caused by my unjust imprisonment could lead to a fatal outcome at any moment,” warned the retired Army general in the audio recording, in which he declared himself a “political prisoner” of his brother Daniel Ortega.
Relatives of Chavarría Altamirano visited the house where both were initially held on several occasions to ask for information about her, but “they were denied the information.” Two years after her capture, the government has still not responded to her family.
“She is in the hands of the state, and at some point during the state’s communications with the family, they tried to distance themselves from this case by saying they saw her at Humberto’s funeral,” Valdivia noted.
