The government of Nicaragua published this Friday photographs in prison of a doctor with Costa Rican and Nicaraguan nationality, two days after the United States asked Managua for proof of life of the detainee.
Washington denounced on Wednesday the arrest and disappearance in August in Nicaragua of the doctor Yerri Estrada, 30 years old, and held the co-presidents and spouses Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo responsible for his whereabouts.
Nicaraguan official media showed images of Estrada, dressed in a blue t-shirt and pants and with his head shaved, in a prison in the municipality of Tipitapa, near the capital.
“I have been treated well, I have not received any kind of offense, neither verbal nor physical mistreatment,” said Estrada, visibly calm, in an interview broadcast on the networks of Channel 4 when questioned about the treatment in jail. The Sandinista government accused Estrada of being a “coup plotter,” according to the media.
The U.S. Department of State’s Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs said that Estrada’s “crime” is “defending freedom during peaceful civic demonstrations.” “Is Murillo so insecure about herself that she cannot provide evidence that (Estrada) is alive?” Washington claimed on Wednesday.
This case occurs after the death of two imprisoned opponents in Nicaragua, which exiles and human rights defenders attributed to a new “repressive era” due to the anticipated transition of power from an ill Ortega to his wife.
Estrada was born in 1995 in Costa Rica, but in his childhood he was taken to live in Nicaragua by his family, according to the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa, which is published in exile.
The Costa Rican government is following the case through its consulate in Managua and has not disclosed details, citing reasons of confidentiality.
Ortega and Murillo are accused of maintaining a fierce persecution against the opposition following the 2018 protests, which Managua described as an attempted coup d’état promoted by the United States. The repression left more than 300 dead, according to the UN.
Ortega, a former 79-year-old guerrilla fighter, in power since 2007 and who also governed Nicaragua in the 1980s, is accused by his critics and humanitarian organizations of establishing a “family dictatorship” alongside Murillo, 74.
In recent months, Ortega has been seen at public events with difficulty walking and a pale countenance (he suffers from lupus and kidney failure).
