Nicaragua’s Current Seven Women Political Prisoners
Today March 8th, International Women’s Day
Five of the seven women are classified as suffering “forced disappearance,” their exact whereabouts and condition unknown.
HAVANA TIMES – Women in Nicaragua have nothing to celebrate on International Women’s Day. For the seventh consecutive year there are no demonstrations on the streets nor public outcries and demands expressed in the country. The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have closed off all open spaces for expression where women could clamor for their rights. In addition, the regime is still holding seven women as political prisoners, five of them in forced disappearance.
This March 8,is also shadowed by the accelerated deterioration of women’s rights under an undeclared but very real police state that demonstrates “the regime’s absolute scorn for human rights,” states an exiled attorney, who asks to withhold her name for fear of reprisals.
In commemoration of International Women’s Day, Confidencial tells the story of these seven female prisoners who remain behind bars in Nicaragua, left behind when the last group of 135 political prisoners were released and banished to Guatemala in September 2024. Of the 47 remaining political prisoners, seven are women according to the latest report from the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners in Nicaragua.
The article includes a counter tallying how many days each political prisoner has now spent in prison or detained and missing. The tally was set up to update automatically each day, until these women are freed.
Evelyn Guillen, the longest held female political prisoner
Athough the authorities still deny it, extra-official reports and those of the released prisoners confirm that she’s in prison, held in inhumane conditions and kept isolated.
Evelyn Susana Guillen Zepeda, 53, is suffering from steadily worsening health, according to denunciation of the Grupo de Reflexión de Excarcelados Políticos (GREX) [“Released prisoners’ reflection group”].
She was arbitrarily detained on August 5, 2023, for her active participation in the April 2018 Rebellion in Managua, supporting the youth in one of the barricades set up in the sector known as Villa Miguel Gutierrez. From that time on, she suffered continued surveillance and restrictions of movement from plainclothes police. She was even subjected to personal assaults of “six riot police,” which left her with psychological traumas according to sources from the GREX.
Following her police abduction, her family looked for her in the Managua jails and in the feared police complex known as El Chipote, but authorities there denied holding her. According to GREX, relatives of other political prisoners confirmed that she’s being held at the women’s penitentiary known as La Esperanza, in Tipitapa.
On September 5, 2024, when the Ortega regime released and banished 135 political prisoners to Guatemala, Evelyn reportedly kept repeating that “now she’d never see her children again, that the struggle was withing Nicaragua.” A prison official then gave her three pills, and Evelyn never emerged from the vehicle that was taking her to the airport. Some of the released prisoners affirm that Evelyn suffers from depression and they’re keeping her constantly “drugged,” as well as isolated in a cell with her feet and hands shackled.
According the the GREX, Evelyn Guillen was sentenced to eight years in prison, accused of violating the Cybercrimes Law and of undermining and betraying the homeland.
On October 21, 2024, the political prisoner’s defense team filed a writ of habeas corpus, which serves to protect her individual freedom and prevent forced disappearances or arbitrary detentions. However, there’s been no response from the judicial authorities.
Nancy Elizabeth Henriquez, indigenous Miskito leader in prison for raising her voice
She has remained in inhumane conditions since being detained. The regime charged her with crimes she never committed and then sentenced her to eight years in jail.
Nancy Elizabeth Henriquez was intercepted in Managua by undercover agents of the Nicaraguan National Police on October 1, 2023. She’s being held in solitary confinement, without access to reading material and in unhygienic conditions, according to confirmed reports from the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR).
The dictatorship sentenced this 62-year-old woman to eight years in prison for the fabricated crimes of undermining the national integrity and spreading fake news that was “harmful to the Nicaraguan government and society.”
She served as the alternate deputy to likewise indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera, who is now also a political prisoner of the Nicaraguan regime. Both belonged to the Yatama party, an acronym in the Miskito language that stands for “Children of Mother Earth.” The female Miskito leader, like Rivera, was arbitrarily and illegally stripped of her congressional seat.
On October 3, 2023, the Ortega regime also outlawed the longstanding indigenous political party, accusing it of undermining the national sovereignty. In October 2023, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ordered precautionary measures to protect the political prisoner, demanding that the government reveal herEvelyn Henriquez. The government has failed to respond to that request.
Angelica Chavarria, Humberto Ortega’s former partner
The domestic partner of Daniel Ortega’s deceased brother, was arrested following the raid of the residence they shared. Her whereabouts remains unknown.
May 20, 2024 was the last time her relatives had any contact with her. The previous day, Angleica Patricia Chavarria, 38, had expressed her worries over “a possible arrest,” or that the regime could put her under “house arrest” together with her domestic partner Humberto Ortega Saavedra (1947-2024), dictator Daniel Ortega’s brother.
Angelica Chavarria wasn’t mistaken. On May 20, 2024, the regime ordered a raid and search of the home of the retired army general and both were detained. They confiscated the couple’s computers and cellphones.
Angelica Chavarria is now considered in “forced disappearance” due to the regime’s “covering up her whereabouts and denying her visits.” Following the death of Humberto Ortega on September 30, 2024, her relatives looked for her in the home the two had shared. “That girl’s just loose, she goes in and out and gets lost,” was the response they received.
In 2018, Angelica participated in the April protests in support of the demonstrators. As a result, she was the object of threats from a neighbor who sympathized with Ortega’s Sandinista Front. Her disappearance isn’t an “isolated event,” the IACHR affirmed; on January 10, 2025, they granted her protective measures to safeguard her life and physical integrity.
Eveling Matus, a Businesswoman Imprisoned Over a Tweet
She was accused of terrorism and treason for a social media post and photos from 2018, although in prison, they say no one with her name is there.
The relatives of Evelyn Carolina Matus Hernández are worried because they have not heard from her since June 26, 2024, when she was arrested. Her health status and whereabouts remain unknown, according to sources linked to her family in September 2024.
The 35-year-old businesswoman was arrested after a police interrogation because they found an old post on X (formerly Twitter) in which she referred to Monsignor Silvio Báez as her “true leader.” On her mobile device, they also found photos showing her participating in protest activities in 2018. That was enough for her to be accused of terrorism and treason.
Matus, a graduate in Marketing and Advertising, ran the parcel delivery company As Soon As Possible (ASAP). Her business was raided by officers of the Special Operations Directorate of the Police, allegedly without a judicial warrant.
Her husband—who was initially also detained—has visited La Esperanza prison more than twenty times to ask about her whereabouts, but authorities tell him there is no one registered under her name.
On March 5, 2024, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted her protective measures and ordered her release after determining that she was in a situation of “extreme gravity.”
Fabiola Tercero, Journalist and Activist Disappeared
The journalist and activist vanished after her home was raided. Despite complaints from colleagues and organizations, no one knows where she is or how she is doing.
“Where is Fabiola Tercero?” asked Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in September 2024 after learning that the feminist journalist and activist was not among the 135 political prisoners exiled to Guatemala in September 2024.
Colleagues and various national and international journalist organizations have inquired about Fabiola Tercero. But no one has received answers or seen her.
Although the censorship and repression imposed by the Ortega regime had kept her away from journalism, Fabiola disappeared on July 12, 2024, after a police raid on her home. Before her disappearance, she had founded El Rincón de Fabi, a space for book exchanges and reading promotion.
Since July 2024, the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the IACHR has demanded that the State “immediately disclose the journalist’s whereabouts,” but to this day, nothing is known about her.
Tercero’s disappearance is yet another example of the dictatorship’s attacks on journalists.
Lesbia Gutierrez, Imprisoned for Working in the Diocese of Matagalpa
The administrator of a diocesan program was detained without a judicial warrant. Since then, no one has confirmed where she is or been allowed to see her.
Without a judicial warrant, on August 10, 2024, uniformed and plainclothes police officers detained Lesbia del Socorro Gutiérrez Poveda at Finca Guadalupana in Samulalí, a community of San Ramon, Matagalpa. Since then, her family has had no communication with her and no guarantee that she is alive.
Her only supposed crime was working in the Diocese of Matagalpa, led by Bishop Rolando Alvarez, now an exiled political prisoner.
Lesbia, 58, was the administrator of the Urban and Rural Financial Support Program (PROAFUR) of the Caritas Diocesan Association of Matagalpa since 2006.
Since early October 2024, family members have been allowed to leave basic hygiene products at La Esperanza prison, but authorities have not confirmed whether she is there or allowed visits. There is no known trial or legal process against her.
Carmen Saenz, Imprisoned for Advising the Diocese
The lawyer and former diocesan advisor was detained without a judicial warrant after being told she would only be interrogated. She remains detained without charges.
Carmen Saenz has been a political prisoner in a condition of forced disappearance since August 10, 2024. Her arrest followed the regime’s standard procedure: her home was raided without a judicial warrant, and she was taken to an unknown location without being informed of the reasons or shown an arrest warrant, under the pretext that she was only going to be interrogated.
She is a lawyer by profession and worked for the judicial system in Matagalpa until before the April 2018 Uprising. She also served as a Canon Law advisor in the Diocese of Matagalpa.
Her relatives have searched for her at District Three in Managua—known as a torture prison—at El Chipote, La Esperanza, and the Plaza El Sol police headquarters. In October 2024, the IACHR reported that Saenz suffers from migraines and fluid retention and is likely not receiving necessary medication. No charges have been filed against her.
She is also a beneficiary of the protective measures granted by the Inter-American Human Rights Court on March 5, 2024, in which the court ordered the State to “ensure her immediate access to physical and mental healthcare, medication, and adequate nutrition.”
Prison Conditions: Punishment for Being Women
Female political prisoners in Nicaragua face double punishment: repression for being considered opponents and institutionalized gender-based violence within the system where they are held. According to human rights organizations, these women, like other political prisoners, are subjected to:
- Prolonged isolation.
- Lack of access to medical care.
- Poor food quality and contaminated water, leading to deteriorating health.
- Psychological abuse and constant surveillance, with restrictions on family visits.
“Some of them, we don’t even know why they are imprisoned. There is no reason to say they were on the front lines of the opposition. Some were taken for religious reasons,” criticizes activist and exiled former political prisoner Evelyn Pinto.
March 8 in Nicaragua: Nothing to Celebrate
In Nicaragua, women face persecution, exile, or imprisonment. In the country, this is not a day of celebration but one of denunciation and resistance against a State that has criminalized the feminist movement and shut down women’s organizations in recent years.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) notes that violence against women remains a concerning issue in a country that does not even publish official data on femicides.
The situation worsened after the closure of numerous civil society organizations. The Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders (IM-Defensoras) estimates that nearly 300 feminist organizations or groups working for women’s rights have been shut down by the dictatorship.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.