Central America

Nicaragua dissident jailed under Ortega dies in prison: family

AFP

Former guerrilla Hugo Torres Jimenez, one of 46 opposition figures jailed since last year by the Nicaraguan government of President Daniel Ortega, died on Saturday, his family said in a statement.

He was 73.

The statement offered few details on Torres’ death but expressed his children’s “deep pain over the death of our beloved father.” It was released by the opposition coalition Blue and White National Unity (UNAB), of which Torres was a member.

A former Sandinista dissident, Torres had been held since June 13, 2021, in El Chipote prison, before being transferred in December to a hospital for treatment, sources said.

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Torres had been vice president of the opposition Democratic Renovation Union (Unamos), formerly the Sandinista Renovation Movement, established in 1995 by militants unhappy with Ortega’s leadership.

A retired army general, Torres in 1974 undertook a risky operation to free a group of jailed politicians — including Ortega — being held under the Somoza dictatorship.

But Ortega, who himself has grown increasingly dictatorial as president and as head of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, has accused dozens of opposition figures of conspiring against his government with US backing.

Torres was hailed on Saturday as a “hero” by ex-guerrilla and exiled Sandinista dissident Monica Baltodano.

She told news website 100% Noticias that Torres was “a true hero of the struggles against the dictatorships that have dominated Nicaragua — the dictatorship of Somoza and now the dictatorship of Ortega, which is a brutal and criminal dictatorship.”

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Unamos in January had reported that Torres’ health was deteriorating and demanded details from the government. It offered none.

The Washington-based Organization of American States said it “considers the fact of keeping political prisoners, with terminal illnesses and without necessary medical assistance, an abominable act.”

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that for months Torres was “denied freedom in inhumane conditions and subjected to a legal process with no guarantees.”

Torres was one of 46 opposition figures detained last year, most of them before November elections in which Ortega was re-elected for a fourth consecutive term. Among the 46 were seven who had planned to run against Ortega.

All have been accused of undermining national integrity and promoting foreign interference in Nicaragua.

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Eighteen have been found guilty in the past two weeks, and seven have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from eight to 13 years.

Central America

Guatemala’s president denounces MP raids during Constitutional Court election

The president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, on Thursday accused the Ministerio Público (MP) of interfering in the process to select magistrates for the country’s highest court, the Corte de Constitucionalidad (CC).

Arévalo has been locked in an ongoing dispute with Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who has been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union and labeled by critics as “corrupt” and “anti-democratic” after efforts to block the president from taking office two years ago.

Earlier on Thursday, the MP said it was investigating alleged irregularities in the voting process and carried out raids at polling sites set up at Club La Aurora and Parque Erick Barrondo, in Guatemala City, where the Colegio de Abogados y Notarios de Guatemala (CANG) was electing its principal and alternate representatives to the CC.

In posts on X, the president described the operation as a “spurious” action aimed at “interfering” in the election and “intimidating” voters in order to “alter” the outcome.

Voting was temporarily disrupted by the searches, the frisking of the CANG president, and a power outage caused by the explosion of a nearby transformer. Once the process resumed and concluded, the association elected Astrid Jeannette Lemus Rodríguez as one of the five members of the Constitutional Court, with Luis Fernando Bermejo Quiñónez chosen as her alternate.

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“They failed in their attempt to hijack the elections (…). Honest lawyers won,” Arévalo wrote in a subsequent message.

Central America

Guatemala to Phase Out Longstanding Medical Cooperation Agreement with Cuba

Guatemala’s government announced on Tuesday that it will end this year a cooperation agreement with Cuba that has brought doctors from the Caribbean nation to work in the Central American country.

Guatemala’s Health Ministry told EFE that the program, which has been in place for nearly three decades, will be phased out progressively throughout 2026.

According to the same source, there are currently 412 Cubans in Guatemala under the agreement, including 333 physicians.

Cuban medical brigades assigned to Guatemala have traditionally been deployed to various regions of the country to provide primary health care to local communities.

“The decision follows a technical assessment aimed at strengthening the sustainability of the national workforce and consolidating the public health system’s own capacities,” the Guatemalan ministry said.

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Earlier this week, lawmaker Sonia Gutiérrez, from the left-wing Winaq party, warned that the move “could be an inhumane act that threatens the health and lives of the country’s most vulnerable populations,” given the historic importance of Cuban doctors in providing medical care.

For that reason, the legislator summoned Health Ministry authorities to Congress, as permitted by law, to provide further details about the decision.

Former human rights ombudsman Jordán Rodas Andrade also weighed in on social media, recalling that “for 27 years Cuban doctors have been the backbone of health care in Guatemala’s most neglected areas,” and stressing that “ending this agreement is an act of ingratitude that leaves the most vulnerable unprotected.”

President Bernardo Arévalo’s government told EFE that, in order to guarantee continued care, it will implement a gradual replacement plan that includes hiring national personnel.

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Central America

Guatemala isolates Barrio 18 leader after attacks that killed 11 police

Guatemalan authorities have placed a leader of the Barrio 18 gang in an isolated cell without الكهرباء or “privileges” after he was accused of triggering a recent wave of violence that left 11 police officers dead, the government said on Sunday.

Members of Barrio 18, which is designated as a “terrorist” organization by both the United States and Guatemala, carried out the killings on January 18 in retaliation for the government’s takeover of three prisons that had been under the control of inmates linked to the group.

In response to the attacks, President Bernardo Arévalo declared a month-long state of siege, arguing that gang members were seeking better conditions in prison or transfers to lower-security facilities.

In a message posted on X alongside photographs, Arévalo announced the isolation of Aldo Dupie, also known as “El Lobo,” one of the gang leaders who allegedly directed the uprisings.

Images released by the government show Dupie inside a small cell with narrow windows, built from metal containers, in a secured area of the Renovación I prison in southern Guatemala — the same facility where the hostage-taking riot took place.

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With a shaved head and a stern expression, the gang leader appears alone and in handcuffs, according to the photographs.

Guatemala’s prison system said the “new area,” protected by metal fencing and barbed wire, will house high-risk inmates who will remain without privileges or electricity.