Statement rejecting the illegal detention and false accusations against Olga Valle and her colleagues

In Nicaragua on November 14, a group of 13 young political activists, members of the Blue and White Alliance, were illegally detained by the National Police and taken to El Chipote prison. Among those detained was Olga Sabrina Valle, a student in the Specialization in Collective Memories, Human Rights, and Resistance at the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO).

The young people were carrying water bottles to a group of mothers of political prisoners who are on hunger strike to demand the release of their unjustly imprisoned sons. The Daniel Ortega regime's response to the women's legitimate demands was to cut off water and electricity to the church where the women are gathered and to establish a perimeter with hundreds of heavily armed police and riot police, preventing the public from providing any assistance to the hunger strikers inside the San Miguel Arcángel Church in the city of Masaya.

Three days after their illegal detention, the 13 young people had not been seen by their families, and today, Monday the 18th, the Prosecutor's Office charged them with alleged serious crimes, including organized crime, terrorism, and possession of weapons and ammunition. Once again, the regime is fabricating crimes to imprison opposition members.  

Repression, illegal detention, and the criminalization of social protest have become yet another practice in the systematic violation of human and civil rights with which the Daniel Ortega regime responds to the sociopolitical crisis that has shaken the country since April 18, 2018.  

We express our rejection of the illegal detention and false accusations against Olga Valle and her colleagues. We demand their immediate release, as well as the release of the more than 130 political prisoners, the restoration of constitutional guarantees, and respect for the human rights of all Nicaraguans.

November 2019
CLACSO Working Group
Collective memories and practices of resistance and
Specialization in Collective Memories, Human Rights and Resistance