Fate of Nicaraguan Lawyer Abducted by Police Still Unknown
Plain-clothes police took attorney Carmen Saenz from her home in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, on August 10th. Since then, her whereabouts remain unknown to her family.
By Ivan Olivares (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – Relatives of Carmen Maria Saenz – lawyer, devout Catholic, mother of two girls, and a political prisoner of the Ortega regime – marked two months since her disappearance at the hands of police in Nicaragua’s north-central city of Matagalpa.
On August 10, 2024, following a ten-day onslaught in which nine priests were abducted, the dictatorship sent police agents in civilian clothes to the home of Carmen Saenz. Offering no explanations to her or her family, they carried her off. Although the priests were subsequently banished to the Vatican, and 135 other political prisoners were released and banished to Guatemala on September 5th, Saenz was not among them. Her whereabouts remain completely unknown.
Sources close to the family told Confidencial that they were surprised on August 10th by insistent knocks on the door of their home at 6 am. Upon opening it to find out who was looking for them so early, they discovered an individual in civilian clothes, who showed them a police badge.
Although at first only that one agent entered the house, neighbors recall seeing other individuals outside, who later were identified as plain-clothes police agents. They had arrived in a Hilux pick-up with a private Managua license plate. Meanwhile, inside the home, the family waited nervously.
In the first moments, the stunned relatives denied that she was home. The arrogant response of that first police agent was that if they didn’t allow him to enter, he would be coming in by force. The source who revealed this information believes that at that point Carmen Saenz preferred to turn herself in and spare her family further trauma.
When the police agent confirmed that she was there, a police patrol with multiple agents in ski masks and armed with AK-47 rifles burst in: “as if they were carrying out an operation to detain some dangerous criminal,” and carried her off to an unknown destination.
Since that time, the family has been on an endless journey from one Matagalpa police station to another, trying to find her. They urgently need to learn where she is being held in order to advocate for her freedom, find out what she was accused of, and – if the government won’t release her – at least bring her food and personal hygiene products. However, it’s all been fruitless.
Civil attorney and specialist in Catholic Canon law
Carmen Saenz is a lawyer in Matagalpa who for many years coordinated the Judicial Office Management Model for the Matagalpa branch of the Nicaraguan Supreme Court, a state agency where she worked from 2002 until 2018, when she ceased performing these duties.
With the time freed up by her resignation, she dedicated herself, together with her husband, to maintaining a small family business – a shop where they sold decorations for special events, such as parties, piñatas or weddings.
She also began to dedicate more time to collaborating with the Catholic Church, the religion she’s held all her life. She brought her professional capacities to the particular area of marriage annulment. “She was specialized in Canon law, and gave talks on marriage annulment to couples at risk of divorce. She did this work as a volunteer,” stated a source, who recognized the value of the assistance she offered.
The only possible motivation for her abduction, sources close to the family told Confidencial, is that her detention followed the police abduction of a number of priests. “The Matagalpa dioceses is the one that has been most under government attack, in order to cause harm to Monsignor [Rolando] Alvarez, former bishop of Matagalpa,” they detailed. “Since she collaborated directly with the Church, we believe they abducted her for that.”
After two months of searching, the anguish the family is suffering is evident in the daughters who shut themselves up in their rooms to cry for their absent mother; and the family’s incessant waiting to be informed where they’re holding her. Her close family members plead for an end to the uncertainty – that they release her, or at least that they be allowed to see her.
“What that family is going through is a nightmare. It’s torture for all of them. Every day that goes by is anguish, because they don’t know how she is: if she’s eating, or not eating; how she’s sleeping, if she’s sleeping well or badly,” stated the source, who also recalled the hope they felt for the lawyer the day they learned that the Ortega regime had loaded a group of 135 political prisoners onto an airplane and banished them to Guatemala.
“When they heard the news, they rejoiced, thinking that she was going there. By that time, Carmen had already been missing for 25 days, and because of that they had hopes of her release. But when a lot of time passed and she didn’t communicate with them, they saw that she hadn’t been among the group. A number of family members then began to cry,” one of the sources described.