29 de octubre 2024
The cases of political prisoners in Nicaragua who left prison only to die shortly after their release, or who suffer from illnesses that leave them bedridden or reliant on specialized medical care, are becoming increasingly visible. Most of these individuals were victims of torture and cruel or degrading treatment in the prisons of the Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo regime. Their cases remain in impunity.
Among the political prisoners released who died without obtaining justice are:
- José Modesto Solís, released in a condition of agony, who passed away two months later in Managua.
- Carolina Gutiérrez, the first transgender political prisoner, who died in Carazo less than a year after being released.
- Tomás Maldonado, a former Nicaraguan military officer, who also died in Carazo two years after his release while still under siege and surveillance.
- Michael Healy, a producer and businessman, president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise, who died of a heart attack in Panama, where he was starting a job, almost a year after his release and exile.
In addition to the political prisoners who left prison to die, there are cases of prisoners of conscience who were released in serious health conditions, such as:
- Marcos Antonio Sánchez, exiled to Guatemala in September 2024, after more than a year in prison, where he suffered two strokes.
- Donald Alvarenga, hospitalized in the United States after being exiled following more than a year in prison, where he developed chronic renal failure.
- Justo Rodríguez, who remains bedridden on the Island of Ometepe after being released in a quadriplegic condition, following eight months in prison.
Additionally, there is the political prisoner Eliseo Castro, who has been hospitalized for the past two years. The list of political prisoners who left prison to die or suffer from severe illnesses may be larger, but several cases are publicly unknown or prefer not to be disclosed.
Like these cases, those of political prisoners who died in custody of the Ortega regime due to mistreatment in prisons also remain in impunity: opposition figure Eddy Montes and retired Brigadier General Hugo Torres. Several organizations also include in the list Santos Flores, who reported a sexual abuse by Daniel Ortega, and retired Army General and brother of the dictator, Humberto Ortega.
Those who died after their release from prison
José Modesto Solís Aguilar, 53 years old
Three months after being released from prison, on December 21, 2023, political prisoner José Modesto Solís Aguilar died at the home of his relatives in Managua. He was taken out of prison by National Penitentiary System custodians when he was in agony. “He could no longer eat, he was relieving himself in his underwear and could barely communicate,” said José Enrique Sánchez, his cellmate in La Modelo prison.
Solís was captured in May 2023 and taken to the District III police station in Managua. Days later he was transferred to Gallery 16 of La Modelo prison, where he remained until September 19, 2023. To date, the reasons for his detention and whether there were any judicial proceedings against him are unknown.
From the moment he arrived at the prison “he looked thin and with sunken eyes,” recalls Sánchez. He adds that the jailers “did not pay attention to him” and in less than a month his health worsened. He suffered from fever and constant diarrhea, but “they never did any laboratory tests” to determine the illness he was suffering from.
In prison they only “gave him acetaminophen and sometimes coffee,” Sánchez says. Sometimes they would take him out of his cell to take his blood pressure, take pictures of him and then lock him up again. On September 19, 2023, when Solís was dying, they only took him out of his cell and took him to his relatives' house. After his death, the authorities did not conduct an investigation into the circumstances of his death.
Carolina Gutiérrez, 36 years old
Carolina Gutiérrez Mercado, known as “Sexy Carolina”, was the first transgender woman to become a political prisoner of the Ortega Murillo regime. She was detained for ten months in La Modelo prison, where she was subjected mockery and humiliation by prison authorities.
On the day of her arrest, July 8, 2018, Carolina was beaten by officers, who knocked out two of her teeth. In prison, she continued to be psychologically tortured because of her sexual identity.
“I feel deeply affected by the psychological trauma. The police, perhaps because they're in positions of authority, act like they're better than us. I felt very offended by that,” she said after being released in May 2019.
After leaving prison, Carolina -who lived in extreme poverty- dedicated herself to washing and ironing other people's clothes and selling enchiladas. However, her health gradually began to deteriorate, until on April 23, 2020, she died of leukemia. In her last days, friends and family called for medical help, but it was too late. A few days before her death, in abandonment and poverty, the Carolina family baptized her in the Gospel.
Tomás Maldonado, 67 years old
The retired major of the Nicaraguan Army, Tomás Maldonado, became a political prisoner of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, on August 2, 2018. His “crime” was to go to pray for the young people who were at the roadblocks in Carazo. However, he was convicted of “organized crime, hindering public services and aggravated damage”.
Maldonado was political secretary of the FSLN in Carazo. He was an evangelical pastor of a church located in Jinotepe, Carazo. He was in prison for ten months and was released under the Amnesty Law approved by the regime in June 2019. However, since his release from prison he suffered repression and threats of death by pro-Ortega supporters, according to his family.
“The threats have always present. Two days ago, he was informed that he was on a list, but fortunately nothing happened. We do not know if it was a lie or true, he was only warned by a contact,” his wife told La Prensa on June 24, 2021, the day he died.
Maldonado also suffered because of the persecution against his son, activist Joao Maldonado, who participated in the protests and was pushed into exile in Costa Rica. After the death of the ex-military, Joao suffered two assassination attempts, first in September 2021 and then in January 2024.
Michael Healy, 61 years old
The former president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep), Michael Healy Lacayo, became a political prisoner of the regime on October 21, 2021. He was violently captured after he attended a summons at the Public Prosecutor's Office and months later was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the alleged crime of money laundering, and for attempting against national sovereignty, according to Law 1055.
Healy was part of the businessmen who in 2018 and 2019 participated in the dialogue attempts with the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. A video is still circulating in social networks in which Healy tells the ruling couple that “there is only one roadblock here, and that roadblock is in El Carmen. Once we remove the El Carmen roadblock, I believe that Nicaragua will move forward”.
The former president of Cosep was also a victim of the de facto confiscation of the Chatilla, Santa Lucia and El Zopilote farms, located in Buenos Aires (Rivas), which belonged to his mother Esperanza Lacayo de Healy, who died in December 2020.
Healy was released from prison and exiled to the United States on February 9, 2023, along with 221 other political prisoners, and eleven months later, on January 25, 2024, he was found dead in a hotel room in Panama City. A source close to the union leader told CONFIDENCIAL at the time that the reason for his death could have been a hereditary condition.
Released from Prison with Severe Health Issues
Marco Sánchez, 48 years old
Released political prisoner Marcos Antonio Sánchez Hidalgo, 48 years old, suffered two strokes while in the regime's custody. Authorities at La Modelo prison denied him medical attention and only took his blood pressure when they thought he was going to die.
Sánchez was captured on June 13, 2023, at a relative's house in Managua. He was taken to the District III police station, where he was held for seven days, and then transferred to La Modelo prison in Tipitapa.
In prison, Sánchez suffered severe headaches and numbness in his hands, but the guards said he was faking it. On May 25, 2024, he suffered his first stroke and on June 5, 2024, his second.
Sanchez recalls that when he was suffering his first stroke, they gave him sugar because “they said it was a sugar crash” and once he regained consciousness “the care stopped.” However, his health continued to decline and two weeks later he experienced a similar event.
During the second stroke, they "pulled me out of the cell while I was unresponsive, and took me to the visiting room, where I remained. I regained consciousness two days later," Sánchez detailed.
After the last stroke, Sanchez lost mobility in the right side of his body and, although he did not receive therapy or treatment, he eventually recovered his mobility. On September 5, 2024, he was released from prison and banished to Guatemala, where, he says, he continues to suffer from headaches and without adequate medical attention.
Donald Margarito Alvarenga, 58 years old
Former political prisoner Donald Margarito Alvarenga Mendoza, one of the 222 political prisoners exiled from Nicaragua on February 9, 2023 to the United States, has been in critical condition at Mercy Hospital in Miami since October 3, 2024.
Alvarenga, 58, suffers from chronic renal insufficiency, which means that his kidneys are not functioning. In January 2022, the regime's justice system sentenced him to 12 years in prison, for the crimes of “undermining national integrity and spreading false news”, as he allegedly incited “hatred and violence”, through Facebook posts and WhatsApp messages.
He was the first person convicted under the Special Cybercrime Law or “Gag Law” and Law 1055 or “Sovereignty Law”, both passed in late 2020. He spent months in prison, until February 2023, when he was released and exiled to the United States.
Upon arrival in the United States, he learned that his kidneys are working at only 15% of their capacity and that he needs a transplant. This condition has left him unable to work and live normally since he was banished.
Justo Rodríguez, 72 years old
Political prisoner Justo Rodríguez was released from prison and transferred to his home on Ometepe Island on December 21, 2020, after being hospitalized at the Lenín Fonseca Hospital for four of the eight months he was detained by the regime.
Rodriguez was arrested in April 2020, for participating in a protest in commemoration of the Ortega massacre against the April Rebellion of 2018. The Ortega justice system sentenced him on July 21, 2020 to three years in prison for the crime of obstruction of functions. Months later, he was handed over to his relatives quadriplegic and practically unrecognizable.
“They gave me a pile of bones,” lamented his sister Esmérita Rodríguez, after he was released in December 2020 and saw that the tough, energetic man he was months earlier was nowhere to be seen.
Rodríguez was badly beaten during his arrest and received no medical attention. A month into his imprisonment he suffered a cerebral embolism and was taken to the hospital. In the following days he underwent “emergency” surgery, but the doctors did not explain why to his relatives.
Without further explanation of his health condition, he was released along with a thousand common prisoners whom the Ortega regime released on Christmas Eve 2020.
Political Prisoner in Critical Health Condition
Eliseo Castro, 61 years old
Political prisoner Eliseo Castro Baltodano, 61 years old, was arrested in September 2019 near his home, in the park of Colonia Maestro Gabriel, in Managua, by armed civilians and Police agents. Two years after being held in La Modelo prison, under beatings and mistreatment, on September 13, 2021 he suffered a stroke that left him bedridden in the Lenín Fonseca Hospital, in Managua.
Because of the stroke, Castro lost his speech, is unable to walk or relieve himself. “He is conscious, but he is practically like a child,” said a family member.
The Ortega justice system sentenced him to six years in prison and a 350-day fine for the crimes of “manufacture, trafficking, possession and use of restricted weapons or explosive devices”.
His relatives have filed all kinds of appeals to transfer him to his home, including requesting a change of prison regime, but their efforts have not yielded the expected results.
In February 2023, after banishing 222 political prisoners to the U.S., dictator Daniel Ortega mentioned in a public speech that Castro would be released with the group, but was rejected by U.S. authorities.
About Castro, who by then was already convalescing due to a stroke suffered in 2021, the dictator said he was rejected by the U.S. because he had been deported from that country in 2006, after serving a sentence of eight years and three months for assaulting a woman.
This article was published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by our staff. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.