20 de marzo 2022
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Political prisoner Victor Hugo Tinoco, 69, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Nicaragua in the 1980s and member of the political group UNAMOS, is in “serious health condition,” denounced the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), through its social networks. The human rights defenders warn that the life of the prisoner of conscience “is in danger” and demand that the Ortega regime, which has unjustly imprisoned him since June 13, 2021, to release him “immediately.”
“Political prisoner Victor Hugo Tinoco is in a serious health condition. His life is in danger. We demand the Ortega regime to free him immediately,” wrote CENIDH via Twitter.
The human rights defenders also released an audio in which a relative of Tinoco details some of the pre-imprisonment ailments that the prisoner has, including: hypertension, heart rhythm disorders, which is often characterized by bradycardia; and leukopenia, which is a decrease in white blood cells and therefore a vulnerable body’s defense system.
In an interview with CONFIDENCIAL, one of Tinoco’s relatives affirmed that, although they do not know if the condition of hypertension and leukopenia that the prisoner has had since before his imprisonment has worsened, they are concerned that the amount of medication administered to him for these ailments in El Chipote has been increased.
“They have him with doble dosage of medication. We presented about two months ago a diagnosis, a letter we wrote to Judicial Assistance, where we told them what he had. And that it was not logical what they were giving him. Because he is not severely hypertensive, he has stress hypertension and if they are increasing the dosage of his hypertension medication, so much, he could have the opposite, hypotension, he could faint and they would have to take him urgently to a hospital,” she explained.
She added that the lack of information they have about Tinoco’s current health condition is due to the fact that “we have not seen him, neither have we seen the tests he is undergoing, nor have we had any visits since January and we are not allowed to talk to the doctor who is monitoring him in there.”
Tinoco’s family assure that in the last visit they had last January and during the trial, which was held against the political prisoner last February 11th, they were able to see him and confirm that “he was a lot more underweight, at least ten pounds more than he had already lost, he had a tremor in his hands and urinary incontinence.”
They demand freedom or house arrest for Victor Hugo Tinoco
The former deputy foreign minister of Nicaragua, also a former Sandinista guerrilla and later an FSLN dissident, was sentenced last February 21st to 13 years in prison and ineligibility to hold public office, for allegedly committing the crime of “undermining national security.”
His family has demanded that as an older person and due to his pre-existing illnesses, which can worsen and make him more vulnerable to infection of Covid-19, a change to house arrest with adequate medical attention.
Tinoco’s family introduced last January, with the support of a medical report, a detailed document with the political prisoner’s ailments to “request his release or change to house arrest,” however they have not received a response.
“Because of his age he should be at home, in four months he will be 70 years old, and if they are not going to free him immediately, at least we want to keep him home, we want a doctor to come and evaluate him, because the leukopenia he has predisposes him to infections and in this pandemic context he is more vulnerable, especially when he has not been given his AstraZeneca booster dose,” said Tinoco’s relative.
*This article was originally published in Confidencial and traslated by Havana Times.
