{"id":174126,"date":"2025-09-08T01:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T07:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/confidencial.digital\/sin-categoria\/nicaragua-where-are-the-disappeared-political-prisoners\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T02:59:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T08:59:17","slug":"nicaragua-where-are-the-disappeared-political-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/confidencial.digital\/en\/nation\/nicaragua-where-are-the-disappeared-political-prisoners\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicaragua: Where are the \u201cDisappeared\u201d Political Prisoners?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Victoria <\/em>remembers the weight on her chest and the pain in her stomach when she learned that the police had kidnapped her son. \u201cThe suffering is terrible,\u201d she says. [Detention] was my greatest fear for him.\u201d The dictatorship is holding the young man under \u201cforced disappearance,\u201d a recurring form of punishment by the Ortega-Murillo regime. <\/p>\n\n

The police abducted Victoria\u2019s<\/em> son in one of the raids carried out by the dictatorship so far in 2025. Immediately after he was taken, his mother went to inquire at the police station in her city, but they denied he was there. She then stood for hours under the sun at the El Chipote jail in Managua, only to be told he wasn\u2019t there either. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThey won\u2019t give me any proof that he\u2019s alive. I know they [government officials] have him, because the whole neighborhood saw when they arrested him, but they deny it when I ask them why they have him in prison,\u201d she laments. <\/p>\n\n

No one goes near Victoria\u2019s<\/em> house. When they see her on the street or at the market, some neighbors and friends timidly approach her and ask her about her son. \u201cPeople avoid contacting me because they\u2019re afraid I\u2019m being watched and because they have seen patrol cars near my house,\u201d she confesses. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve continued to ask about my son and beg them to let me give him some food or pills for the migraines he suffers from, but they tell me they don\u2019t have him and even threaten me if I don\u2019t leave and stop bothering them,\u201d she explains.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

33 detained political prisoners in \u201cforced disappearance\u201d <\/h2>\n\n

Victoria\u2019s<\/em> anguish is echoed by many families. In Nicaragua, at least 73 people are currently detained for political reasons, of whom 33 remain in a state of \u201cforced disappearance,\u201d according to the August 30, 2025 report by the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners. <\/p>\n\n

This organization notes that disappearance \u201chas become a systematic practice\u201d of the regime.<\/p>\n\n

Although detentions without official notification and even confinement in clandestine prisons began at the start of the 2018 protests, the practice of denying the kidnapping of individuals has intensified since the end of 2023. The uptick in this practice is documented in the report \u201c\u00bfD\u00f3nde m\u00e1s busco?\u201d: Vidas suspendidas, desapariciones forzadas en Nicaragua y la resistencia de quienes les buscan,\u201d<\/em><\/a> [\u201cWhere Else Do I Look?\u201d: Suspended Lives, Enforced Disappearances in Nicaragua and the Resistance of Those Who Search\u201d] compiled by Raza e Igualdad, the Nicaragua Nunca M\u00e1s Collective, the Legal Defense Unit, IM-Defensoras, and the Autonomous Movement of Women of Nicaragua. <\/p>\n\n

Now, the periods of disappearance have gone from a maximum of 90 days to indefinite durations, these five organizations warn.<\/p>\n\n

Who are the \u201cdisappeared\u201d?<\/h2>\n\n

The 33 political prisoners in a state of forced disappearance are people whose families are \u201csystematically\u201d denied knowledge of their whereabouts, forcing them to go from police stations to prisons and hospitals without receiving any answers. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe deliberate silence of the State prolongs the uncertainty and anguish,\u201d states the report from the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners<\/a>. The following is the most current list of the 33 political prisoners with whereabouts unknown \u2013 considered \u201cdisappeared\u201d. <\/p>\n\n

    \n
  1. Douglas Gamaliel \u00c1lvarez Morales.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Eddie Mois\u00e9s Gonz\u00e1lez Valdivia.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Eveling Carolina Matus Hern\u00e1ndez.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Brooklyn Rivera Bryan.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Lesbia del Socorro Guti\u00e9rrez Poveda.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Carmen Mar\u00eda Sa\u00e9nz Mart\u00ednez.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Fabiola del Carmen Tercero Castro.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Steadman Fagot M\u00fcller.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. V\u00edctor Boitano Coleman.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Leo Catalino C\u00e1rcamo Herrera.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. Fabio Alberto C\u00e1ceres Larios.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  12. Julio Antonio Quintana Carvajal.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  13. Ang\u00e9lica Patricia Chavarr\u00eda Altamirano.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  14. Jos\u00e9 Alejandro Hurtado D\u00edaz.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  15. \u00c1lvaro Baltodano Monroy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  16. Rudy Antonio Palacios Vargas.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  17. Armando Jos\u00e9 Berm\u00fadez Mojica.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  18. Olga Mar\u00eda Lara Rojas.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  19. Jessica Mar\u00eda Palacios Vargas.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  20. Pedro Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez Calero.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  21. Marcos Adony Cruz Moncada.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  22. Yolanda del Carmen Gonz\u00e1lez Escobar.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  23. Mario Jos\u00e9 Rodr\u00edguez Serrano.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  24. Luis Francisco Ortiz Calero.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  25. Yerri Gustavo Estrada Ruiz.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  26. Marvin Antonio Campos Chavarr\u00eda.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  27. Mar\u00eda Jos\u00e9 Rojas Arburola.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  28. Carlos Ramon Brenes S\u00e1nchez.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  29. Salvadora del Socorro Mart\u00ednez Aburto.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  30. Undisclosed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  31. Undisclosed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  32. Undisclosed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  33. Undisclosed.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    \u201cThey don\u2019t want us to speak out\u201d<\/h2>\n\n

    The study \u201cD\u00f3nde m\u00e1s busco?\u201d<\/em> (Where else do I look?) documents how the dictatorship uses forced disappearance as a \u201cmechanism of punishment and social control\u201d to affect both detainees and their families, who are \u201ccondemned to an endless search, amid official silence.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

    \u201cEach disappearance leaves lives suspended: those who are erased by the State and those outside, left to sustain life, memory, and resistance,\u201d they emphasize.<\/p>\n\n

    What makes Dalilah<\/em> feel most powerless is \u201cnot being able to denounce with all my words the cruelty of this dictatorship,\u201d that has kept her sister missing since 2024.<\/p>\n\n

    \u201cMany of us do not speak out publicly because we are afraid that something will happen to our family member in prison, or because we know that we too could be imprisoned,\u201d she confesses in an interview with CONFIDENCIAL<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n

    \u201cIt\u2019s clear that they silence us because they don\u2019t want us to speak out, they don\u2019t want anyone to know the conditions in which [the prisoners] are being held (\u2026) it\u2019s a horrendous crime not even allowing us to know how they are,\u201d says Dalilah<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n

    A general pattern<\/h2>\n\n

    Beyond the duration of the forced disappearance, the five organizations note in the report that there is a general pattern characterized by: <\/p>\n\n