Nicaraguan political prisoners held in ‘horrific conditions,’ says lawyer

MANAGUA (Reuters) – Two former presidential candidates are among more than 180 political prisoners in Nicaragua undergoing “the worst kinds of human rights abuses,” their lawyer said Wednesday.

One year after Juan Sebastian Chamorro and Felix Maradiaga were arrested ahead of Nicaragua’s disputed 2021 election, neither has spoken to their families and both are being held in “horrific conditions,” the men’s international counsel said in a press conference Wednesday, the anniversary of their arrests.

“They receive little food of poor quality and have lost a tremendous amount of weight – some 50 pounds (23 kg) each,” counsel Jared Genser said. “Juan is kept in a cell where the fluorescent lights are on 24/7, while Felix’s cell is kept in total darkness.”

The U.S. cited human rights abuses in Nicaragua when it declined to invite President Daniel Ortega to this week’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, leading to a boycott by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Genser said his clients are just two of more than 180 political prisoners whose rights have been abused in the past year.

Maradiaga and Chamorro were candidates for presidency seeking to run against Ortega when they were arrested in a wave of detentions of opposition politicians.

In February, the two men were each sentenced to 13 years for “conspiracy to undermine [Nicaragua’s] national integrity.”

Alongside their wives, Victoria Cardenas and Berta Valle, Genser accused the country’s government of transforming Nicaragua “from a fragile democracy into a dictatorship.”

Nicaragua’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Ismael Lopez; Writing by Carolina Pulice; Editing by Brendan O’Boyle and Richard Pullin)