How Ortega’s Repression Impacts His Prisoners’ Children
“They cry every night.”
The “Unidad de Defensa Juridica” reports that 43.2% of minors watched as their homes were raided; 35% were present when the police took their parents; and 18.9% have had their things confiscated.
HAVANA TIMES – The children of 36 of Nicaragua’s 147 current political prisoners are in situations of “extreme vulnerability,” after being victims of “direct or indirect violence” on the part of Daniel Ortega’s dictatorship. That’s the chief conclusion of a study released on August 19 by the organization Unidad de Defensa Juridica [Legal Defense Unit] or UDJ.
The report is titled “Crying every night: the impact of political prison on the sons and daughters of the political prisoners in Nicaragua.” It warns that the family separation imposed by the regime causes serious repercussions in the children, many of whom suffer emotional trauma.
It also leads to an increase in poverty, failure to attend school, child labor, forced displacement, substance abuse, stigmatization and discrimination suffered in their community and school environments. The report was compiled by the UDJ, an organization of attorneys who defend or advise the political prisoners and their families.
“The results of the data collected illustrate the extreme vulnerability of the children and adolescents whose fathers or mothers have been jailed for political motives in Nicaragua. Effects have been found in every area of the children’s lives, be it on a family, psychosocial, social, or economic level,” the authors affirm.
Children suffer the consequences of family separation
Among the acts of “direct or indirect violence” that have impacted the political prisoners’ children:
- 43.24% were present when their homes were illegally raided by police;
- 35.14% observed the violent detention of a parent; and
- 18.9% had their and their families’ property confiscated, including clothing, cellphones, toys, or even medical records.
Similarly, the study documented the grave impact on these children’s mental health caused by the violence and family separation of the political imprisonment.
“In the sample studied, there are children who cry every night about the separation and violence against their father or mother. Some have had to be referred to psychologists, and there are even children who began using drugs or engaging in suicidal thoughts as a way of expressing their suffering,” states the report, based on an analysis of the situation of 37 of the political prisoners’ 69 minor children.
The study also details that 56.76% of these children live in different departments than the ones where their parents are incarcerated. Further, all of them have been subjected at least once to long hours of waiting in the prison before being allowed to see their parents. Over a third – 35.14% – have been bullied in their schools because their father or mother is imprisoned for political reasons.
The organization warned that these identified effects could, in themselves, constitute illicit acts in the light of international human rights laws, since they violate a large number of the rights and obligations contained in treaties that Nicaragua has ratified, including the Convention on the Rights of Children and the American Convention on Human Rights.
Demanding freedom for Nicaragua’s political prisoners
Given this, the UDJ recommended that the government free the political prisoners immediately, in view of the grave impact their imprisonment generates in their families, especially those who have young children. While they remain imprisoned, the government should facilitate the use of telephone technologies and video calls to guarantee communications between the detained parents and their children.
Finally, they called for a cessation of all types of violence or intimidation against the children of the detained dissenters and for guarantees that – while the prisoners still await liberation – the visiting areas be accommodated for children, and the visits last at least 3 hours, in order to allow greater connection and intimacy with their parents.
The report called on the international community and civil society to demand that the Nicaraguan government free the political prisoners, especially the cases that have children.
Photos and stories of many of the Nicaraguan political prisoners, compiled by the UDJ and related organizations, can be seen at: https://nicaslibresya.org/en/political-prisoners/
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Originally published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.