Rosa Ruiz: “I Have No One in Nicaragua to Ask About Yerri”
Mother of the young political prisoner Yerri Estrada declares that her son was tortured, but she has no way of knowing what his current prison situation is.
By Carlos F. Chamorro (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – Rosa Ruiz, mother of the imprisoned Costa Rican-Nicaraguan doctor Yerri Estrada, abducted by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship on August 13, 2025, admits she’s lived through months of anguish. Not only did they take her son away, but after she made her complaint public, the authorities took revenge on the rest of her family who still remain in Nicaragua.
According to Rosa, her other two children, Maura Estrada and a 14-year-old boy, plus her five-year-old granddaughter, are now “forcibly displaced.” They had to leave their home after enduring threats, intimidation, and harassment from police and civilians affiliated with the Sandinista regime.
During an interview broadcast on Confidencial’s weekly television news program Esta Semana, visible on their You Tube channel, Ruiz reported that her son is once again “forcibly disappeared.” The family’s last news of him was on September 12, 2025, when the dictatorship’s propaganda media released videos and photographs of the young doctor, in which he claimed to be well treated.
Ruiz states that no one can get information on Yerri’s current situation, because she has no family left who could even go to the prison to ask about him.
Two months ago, as “proof of life,” the police and the prison system presented some images of your son, Yerri Estrada Ruiz, in the La Modelo prison. What is known after they presented those images? How is Yerri today?
After the media presentation they did with my son in the Jorge Navarro [“La Modelo”] prison system, I haven’t been able to find out anything about my son. His girlfriend was granted a visit on September 14, but on September 15, the Ministry of the Interior informed my daughter that all information regarding my son was being suspended. His right to receive packages or visits was also suspended, and there’s no way to obtain information about his situation.
Unofficially, I learned from a prison guard that my son had been beaten on parts of his body – he was taken out of his cell to be beaten – and was being psychologically tortured, like telling him that he’d never get out, that he’d always be there, that his family had abandoned him. That is what I have been able to learn unofficially.
Last week, the authorities released five political prisoners who, like your son, had been forcibly disappeared. What does that release mean to you?
Well, it warms my heart a little, because those families are no longer suffering what I’m still going through, and they are now at home, even if they remain under [government] control. I’m clear that they have not been released because the Ortega-Murillo government is concerned about the state of health of these people, whether they die in prison. These are actions because of pressure from the international community, especially the US State Department, who have been supporting in a big way and working to have the Nicaraguan government release these prisoners.
Can your relatives in Nicaragua continue having some kind of contact with the authorities to advocate for the situation surrounding Yerri?
I can tell you that I no longer have any family there (tearful). My children were forced to move to the interior parts of the country, because arrest warrants had been put out for them, even my youngest son who is 14. Therefore, they can’t budge from the place I have them in. I have no way for my children, my daughter, to be able to try and see their brother or send him a package.
I have made public requests in posted videos, and also asked the Costa Rican embassy in Managua that in their conversations with Nicaragua – if they are having any – they should request that I be allowed to appoint a person who’s not blood family, but Yerri’s godmother, to support me in this, so she could go see my son and bring him his allowed food packages. I know she would do it, despite her fear.
Right now, there are more than 30 cases of political prisoners who have been forcibly disappeared. As Yerri’s mother, are you in touch with other family members who are going through the anguish of being unable to locate their children, husbands, or brothers?
Yes, I am in contact with many of them, but they are terrified because most of them are in Nicaragua. They’re afraid to speak out because they know they’ll be taken to prison if they do. For that reason, they do not speak out, although they’ve taken the important step of having [the prisoners’] names posted on the list of recognized political prisoners maintained by the group Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners [Mecanismo para el Reconocimiento de Personas Presas Políticas]. But for the rest, their mouths are sealed, due to the terror that’s unfortunately being imposed in my country.