Olesia Muñoz: “They Invented a Facebook Post to Accuse Me”
Muñoz was a political prisoner twice. She was accused of cybercrimes in a setup that involved the bishop of Granada, Monsignor Solorzano.
HAVANA TIMES – Olesia Muñoz is convinced that her life is not in limbo now that she has been exiled to Guatemala. Her faith in God, which sustained her during more than two years in prison, gives her the certainty that God will know what to do with her life.
“Exile hurts humanly, but spiritually it does not, because these are projects and plans that God gives to humans, and therefore, God’s plans are perfect,” she said from Guatemala, where she was taken along with 134 other Nicaraguan political prisoners on September 5th.
Muñoz has been imprisoned twice by the regime since 2018. The first time, she was deprived of her freedom for almost eleven months, from July 2018 to June 2019. The second time, for nearly 17 months, from April 8, 2023, to September 5, 2024.
“I can only feel joy and peace in my heart because (our release) is something we prayed for while in prison. But I tell you, there were moments when we laughed heartily amid the pain,” she recalls.
Olesia has always been an openly Catholic woman. Before being arrested for the first time, she sang at the Santa Ana Parish of Niquinohomo, where she also taught piano, guitar, and flute. On Holy Thursday of 2023, when she was abducted for the second time, she was preparing to sing at the Mass marking the start of the Easter Triduum in the San Pedro Parish in the municipality of Diria, Granada.
A patrol vehicle arrived, and the officers told her they were taking her for an “interview” with the police. On the way, she heard that more people were being transported. Muñoz was taken to the District Three police station in Managua, where she remained for three months.
“That was quite hard because the prison was very small and extremely hot. We had access to daily packages, but our family couldn’t come due to the distance, the costs, and everything else. We didn’t see our families during that time. It was very painful not knowing anything about them,” she describes.
A Digital Setup Involving Monsignor Jorge Solorzano
The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo accused Olesia Muñoz under the Cybercrime Law, even though she barely used her social media and had refrained from posting or commenting on them. However, the authorities fabricated evidence against her to prosecute her.
“They accused me of a post supposedly made by Monsignor Jorge Solórzano, the bishop of Granada. They claimed I commented on that post,” she says.
According to her, the authorities presented a supposed Facebook account of the bishop of Granada in which he criticized Ortega’s government, and she allegedly commented, mentioning the “Renacer Act.”
“I don’t even know what the Renacer Act is,” Muñoz explains.
In the screenshots shown during the trial, there was a Facebook account showing Monsignor Jorge Solorzano with Pope Francis. Muñoz was not convicted for this alleged crime.
“I had three hearings alone because I faced it alone. Some trials were in groups. But in the end, they didn’t give me any sentence, and they practically kept us in limbo,” she laments.
“They Tried to Keep Us Isolated”
Olesia Muñoz spent 15 months in La Esperanza prison. In this second imprisonment, she didn’t suffer physical torture as she did during her first incarceration. But there were psychological tortures, she affirms.
“From the moment we arrived, they barely spoke to us. They wanted to repress us, not talk to us, not even allow us to stick our heads out beneath the bars. They didn’t want us to see their faces. They wanted us to be completely submerged in the four walls of the cell,” she noted.
Medical care in the prison was basic, she describes. The medicine was limited to ibuprofen and acetaminophen. “It was our families who took care of bringing us the proper medications. In my case, my diabetes medicine.”
The Day of Liberation
Twelve hours before the group of 135 political prisoners was exiled, “movements” began in the prison. Olesia Muñoz recalls being taken out around seven in the evening on Wednesday, September 4, 2024. The director and deputy director of La Esperanza came to their cells and told them to put on their uniforms because they were leaving.
They were then transferred to a hall where more political prisoners were brought. They were all taken to La Modelo, the men’s prison. There, they were taken to a place where there were six tables with passports and staff from the US embassy.
“They interviewed us and asked if we were leaving voluntarily. They said no one was forcing us, but if we decided to stay in Nicaragua, they would send us back to prison,” she says.
At that moment, only one political prisoner, Evelyn Guillen, decided not to leave Nicaragua. “They took her out, passed her through the passport process before the Americans, but she didn’t sign. She said she wasn’t going. Then she got on the minibus. When we reached the airport, around 5:40, they told her to get off,” Muñoz recounts.
In October 2023, the Political Prisoners Reflection Group (GREX) denounced that Evelyn Guillén’s mental health was deteriorating due to inadequate medical care.
Muñoz says that when she was informed about the exile, she didn’t hesitate. “We said, even if they exile us, it’s far away from all this, far away from prison,” she reiterates.
“God blessed us through the efforts of those who worked for our freedom and continue to work for those who remain. I am not going to waste what God is giving me,” she said.