The Ortega Police Siege of TickToker Kevin Monzon

Kevin Monzon. Photo: Oscar Navarette / La Prensa

The Police tried to arrest Kevin Monzon for the fourth time for his active opposition to the Ortega dictatorship but his father ran out to protect him

By La Prensa

HAVANA TIMES – At approximately 10:30 a.m. on July 20th, Kevin Monzon, the 20-year-old TickToker known for his opposition to the Ortega-Murillo regime, reported on social media that his house was being raided, after the police’s fourth attempt to abduct him. His father, Adrián Benjamín Monzón, confirmed this report to LA PRENSA.

Kevin wrote on his Twitter account “right now, they are raiding my house,” without specifying who was doing the raiding. Nevertheless, he asked for help in the same message.

“We were in the house repairing our taxi and I asked him to go [to the corner store] for a soda, and that’s when I heard him shouting Papa! Papa! and I saw that they had him with his hands behind his back, ready to handcuff him. I came out and asked them what was going on. “No, nothing. We only want to talk to him,” they said. I am his father, and I knew I had to do something, and I began to struggle with them until he got loose and was able to run to the house,” Don Adrián told us.

Kevin, who lives in Managua’s Cristo Rey neighborhood, has been apprehended by the police three other times, and, according to him, they have stolen three cell phones from him.

One time, Kevin says charges were brought against him in court after a taxi driver filed a false complaint that he had threatened him. In the end the charges couldn’t be proven, and they were dropped.

Police threaten to imprison them

Kevin’s father also reported that the police entered their house, threatening them with imprisonment. “The police said to me you’ll see, you old fart. I better not see you outside because I’ll grab both you and your son.” This is why they chose to stay locked in the house, although he assured us that he had already sent Kevin to a safer place.

Don Adrián fears that the police will step up their persecution against him and his son. “We’ve already moved him out of the house to someplace else. If the police come again, then I’ll confront them. Also, because I’m a taxi driver, the police have said to me: ‘you better hope we don’t see you in the streets, because we’ll arrest you,’” he added.

On February 22, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) approved precautionary measures for the Monzón family requested by the Nicaragua Never Again Human Rights Colletive, because they considered that Kevin and his family were in grave and immediate danger of irreparable harm in Nicaragua, where human rights are not respected by the dictatorship.

“We petition the State of Nicaragua to cease all acts of harassment, persecution, and aggression against its citizens who insist that their human rights be respected, and for the release of the more that 140 political prisoners,” the Human Rights group demanded.

Dismissed because of persecution

Kevin worked in a store in Managua’s Mercado Oriental, but due to the persecution and the constant threats by fanatic Ortega supporters and the police, his boss dismissed him on April 23.

“I returned to work at the store, as I needed to support myself. Many of my followers would stop by to say hello, but Ortega supporters would also come by to insult or threaten me. Plus, the police were watching me. Apparently, the store owner didn’t like all of this, and she said to me ‘Look, son, I don’t want to fire you. It’s just that I’ve seen people pass by threatening you, and that lately the police have been hanging around outside my store, and you know that other people are afraid of this. So, for your own protection, I’m going to lay you off for now.’

I told her it was okay, but really, for me, it was because somebody told her to fire me ,” declared Kevin a few weeks ago.

Read more from Nicaragua here on Havana Times.