The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo handed over political prisoner Mauricio Alonso dead on Monday, August 25, 2025. He had been detained on July 17, when he was captured along with his wife and son in the department of Carazo. The dictatorship also ordered his express burial in Jinotepe, under police guard. <\/p>\n\n
Hooded men stormed Alonso\u2019s home on the night of July 17, as part of raids carried out ahead of the July 19 anniversary. Alonso\u2019s wife was released that same day, but he and his son remained in custody, denounced the Segovia Institute for Leadership and Social Transformation in Political Exile, in a statement. <\/p>\n\n
From the day of his arrest, Alonso\u2019s relatives searched for him in several prisons and hospitals in the country without obtaining any information about his whereabouts. It was not until Monday, August 25, 2025, that they received a call from the Institute of Legal Medicine informing them that the opponent\u2019s body would be handed over. <\/p>\n\n
Sources close to the deceased\u2019s family confirmed the call from the Institute of Legal Medicine (IML). Afterwards, the widow and other relatives traveled to Managua to claim the body. <\/p>\n\n
Alonso\u2019s family declined to give interviews for fear of further reprisals, especially against his son, who remains in detention.<\/p>\n\n
Nicaraguan human rights defender and activist Hayd\u00e9e Castillo explained that Alonso\u2019s relatives spent \u201call morning\u201d at the IML (Institute of Legal Medicine), and it was only after 2:00 p.m. that the authorities handed over his body in a sealed coffin.<\/p>\n\n
After releasing Alonso\u2019s body, regime authorities ordered the family to bury him \u201cimmediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
National Police patrols escorted the minibus that transported Alonso\u2019s body from the IML headquarters in Managua to the cemetery in Jinotepe, Carazo. They remained there until the funeral was over. <\/p>\n\n
According to Castillo, the family was not given any document explaining the cause of death.<\/p>\n\n
The U.S. State Department\u2019s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs condemned what happened to Alonso, declaring that it \u201cwill not tolerate such cruelty nor forget this crime\u201d committed under state custody.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cHorrified by the inhumanity of the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship, the authorities today returned the lifeless body of Mauricio Alonso, a Nicaraguan defender of religious freedom, to his family. The dictatorship unjustly detained Alonso and kept him incommunicado for a month until his death,\u201d the bureau stated. <\/p>\n\n