Where is Businesswoman & Political Prisoner Eveling Matus?
By Ivan Olivares (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – Eveling Carolina Matus Hernandez, a 35-year-old businesswoman, mother, and political prisoner, was illegally detained by the Police on the afternoon of June 25, 2024, in Managua. Sources connected to her are now demanding that officials at the “La Esperanza” women’s prison acknowledge that they are holding her, allowing them to provide her with food, cleaning supplies, and allow her two young children to visit her.
Matus was arrested after police found an old social media post of hers, where she referred to Monsignor Silvio Báez as her “true leader,” as well as photos showing her participating in protests in 2018. According to a source speaking to CONFIDENCIAL, these photos on her phone were enough to accuse her of “terrorism” and “treason against the homeland.”
Eveling Matus studied at the Central American University, being part of the first generation to graduate with a degree in Marketing and Advertising. She worked for several years as the Advertising Coordinator for Claro before establishing a courier company called ASAP (As Soon As Possible) in April 2018.
On the afternoon of June 25, after leaving her business in the Lomas del Valle residential area, Matus was detained by police agents who took her back to her business for a search. Shortly after, several police patrols arrived, creating an impressive operation that neighbors could not ignore, especially with the amount of people entering and leaving the residential area after work.
Shortly after, she was taken to the National Police’s District Three Station for interrogation due to a comment she made on her social media about Monsignor Silvio Baez, relating to the persecution of the Catholic Church. Upon searching on her phone, they found photos of her participating in a 2018 protest.
In District Three or “La Esperanza”
Although her family has been unable to see her, a person who had contact with her a month after her abduction informed them that on July 2, she was taken to court, accused of “treason against the homeland” and “undermining territorial integrity.” The supposed “evidence” was the photos found on her phone. On July 3, she was supposedly transferred to the La Esperanza Penitentiary, and on July 10, she was taken back to court.
Since then, her family has received no further information, whether from third parties or official sources, about her health or whereabouts. The family is uncertain if she is in District Three or La Esperanza, as the person who saw her claimed. Her family has repeatedly visited the prison system, asking about her, but they are always told that “she’s not here.”
The release and banishment of 135 political prisoners on September 5th had given her family hope that Eveling might be among them, but that was not the case. When she did not contact them to say she had been freed, they turned to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners in Nicaragua, who distributed a photo of her among the political prisoners recently released in Guatemala.
None of the released women recognized her, although many said that there were more prisoners in other sections of the prison whom they could not identify. The fact that no one saw her has heightened concern, and her loved ones are demanding that the regime disclose “where the missing businesswoman is.”
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.