Nicaraguan Police Abduct Eight, Their Whereabouts Unknown
Their families were advised to report them at Police headquarters in Managua as “missing”.
By Ivan Olivares (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – A persecution launched in Jinotepe in the days leading up to Nicaragua’s July 19 celebrations resulted in the abduction of eight people, including an evangelical pastor, a person close to those seized by the National Police confirmed to CONFIDENCIAL.
After searching for their relatives at different Police stations without luck, the families were told to go to Plaza El Sol, the main police headquarters in Managua to report them as “missing,” even though it was police agents who had taken them.
In recent years, the regime has made a habit of carrying out abductions each time the eve of a major celebration approaches, including every anniversary of the April 2018 Rebellion, as consistently reported by the Blue and White Monitoring group.
How they were detained in Jinotepe
The events described unfolded over three and a half hours of terror for those involved—two of them with the surname Palacios Vargas and three others close to them by affinity. “On Thursday, July 17, between 7:00 and 10:30 p.m., police forces, both in uniform and in plain clothes, all heavily armed, came to the home of Olga Maria Lara Rojas, age 42,” the source detailed.
Verified information shows that this was a coordinated operation among police agents, because during that time frame they also went to the homes of siblings Jessica (46), Arely, and Rudy Palacios Vargas (57), and took them. Along with Jessica, they also detained her husband, named Pedro Lpez. They also took Armando Bermudez, Arely’s husband, as well as Mauricio Alonso Prieto and his son of the same name.
The police entered violently, even breaking down the doors of some houses. They used the butts of their rifles or a crowbar. The sources describe it as a “kidnapping,” since in no case was a judicial warrant presented. They were simply taken without any explanation.
“They entered violently, took their cell phones and any electronic device that could be used to communicate, and took them away,” sources said.
Some detainees were formerly aligned with the FSLN
Jessica and her brother, Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas, share more than just family ties: both suffer from debilitating age-related illnesses. They were also previously involved in political activities with the Sandinista National Liberation Front, [the party of the dictators Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo]. In addition to Jessica, who was a city council member for the party, Olga Maria also held a similar position in the Jinotepe municipality.
Neither Armando Bermudez nor Pedro Vargas had any known political activity. Sources believe they are collateral damage for living with the sisters Arely and Jessica Palacios Vargas, respectively. “The regime doesn’t forgive the fact that Rudy, Olga Maria, and this family are of Sandinista origin. They had distanced themselves from the FSLN before the April 2018 rebellion. They stepped away from their role as supporters of the party,” the sources explained, adding that Mauricio Alonso Prieto was a guerrilla fighter in the struggle against Somoza, toppled in 1979.
Pastor Rudy Palacios left the country in July 2018. He went into exile from Jinotepe through the northern border but returned shortly before the start of the pandemic. He was placed under house arrest and could not leave his home. Initially, he was visited every 15 days, but the police visits became weekly. The same happened with Olga Maria: visits began as monthly, then every 15 days, and more recently, once a week.
“I’m not surprised they captured Rudy and Mauricio, because they were under constant surveillance—pressured, threatened, fingerprinted. They had to report to a phone number provided by the police. They were called, photographed—it was constant. But the case of the others is strange, because neither Jessy nor her husband had any political ties, and much less Armando,” they explained.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.