The Diplomat
The Spanish government yesterday lamented the death in prison of Nicaraguan dissident Hugo Torres and once again demanded that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega release all political prisoners.
In a message on his Twitter account, the State Secretary for Ibero-America, Juan Fernández-Trigo, said: “We deeply regret the death of political prisoner Hugo Torres, arbitrarily detained, imprisoned in inhumane conditions and tried without guarantees”.
Known during the Sandinista revolution as “Comandante Uno”, Hugo Torres participated in the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSNL) operation to rescue political prisoners from the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, including Daniel Ortega, in 1974 and in the subsequent revolution. Torres subsequently distanced himself from Daniel Ortega and, last June, was imprisoned on charges of conspiring against the regime. He died last Saturday in El Chipote prison in unclear circumstances.
Fernández-Trigo demanded: “Ortega must immediately and unconditionally release the political prisoners and guarantee human rights and democracy in Nicaragua”.
Spain has been very critical of Ortega’s actions and did not recognise the results of last November’s elections that gave him another victory, considering them a mockery of democracy.
On 10 January, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares met with the wife of one of these political prisoners on the same day that Ortega took office for a new term, an event to which Spain did not send a representative. Last August, the Spanish government recalled the ambassador in Managua, Mar Fernández-Palacios, for consultations in response to a communiqué from the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry denouncing interference by Spain.
