TODAY NICARAGUA – Without evidence, on Tuesday, June 1, Nicaragua’s Attorney General’s Office, controlled by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, de facto inhibited independent presidential candidate, Cristiana Chamorro Barrios, from participating in the general elections in November.
The Prosecutor’s Office formally accused the presidential candidate for “the crimes of abusive management and ideological falsehood, with money, property and assets laundering,” after two weeks of alleged investigation against the Fundación Violeta Barrios de Chamorro,n ( FBVCH), for which, in addition, it is illegally holding former financier Walter Gómez and former accountant Marcos Fletes.
In its accusation, the Prosecutor’s Office requested the inhibition of Cristiana Chamorro in the electoral process, by ensuring that she “is not in full enjoyment of her civil and political rights, because she is in a criminal process.”
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In addition, it requested the immigration retention of her, prohibits her from attending “certain meetings and places”, and even communicating with people linked to the facts under investigation, “to prevent them from evading the investigative process carried out against him.”
Also, journalist María Lilly Delgado and the former employees of the Foundation, Lourdes Arróliga and Guillermo José Medrano, must comply with the precautionary measures imposed on Chamorro; however, the statement from the Prosecutor’s Office does not explain whether they are being criminally prosecuted.
“The Public Ministry will continue to carry out all the necessary investigative procedures to establish the facts. We have called and will continue to call all those people who appear to have benefited from the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation,” reiterates the document of the Prosecutor’s Office that has already cited more than thirty journalists, media directors and representatives, former employees and representatives of organizations that They worked with some support from the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation.
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Chamorro’s inhibition occurs two weeks after the Prosecutor’s Office began the investigation against her and 7 hours after the presidential candidate arrived at the national headquarters of the Citizens for Freedom (CxL) party to request information to register her presidential candidacy.
It also occurs less than 48 hours after the deadline established by that party for the registration of pre-candidacies expires.
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Meanwhile, the Ortega police are holding former FBVCH financier Walter Gómez and former accountant Marcos Fletes, who were arrested on May 28 and since then their relatives and lawyers have not been able to communicate with them. Both former workers are being investigated in the case against Chamorro and the defunct FVBCH that she presided over until February 2021.
On May 20, when the case against the FVBCH became known, Cristiana Chamorro denounced that the alleged inconsistencies found in the financial reports of the NGO are the “assembly” of a “macabre and terrible” action, which would seek to incriminate her “in something that is truly false”.
“Surely it is a process not only to inhibit me – as a presidential candidate – but to prevent Nicaraguans from being able to vote in freedom,” said Chamorro.
Less than 96 hours later, on May 24, Chamorro reported that Daniel Ortega’s regime froze all her bank accounts and ordered the lifting of bank secrecy, as part of the case against the FVBCH. The accounts of other former Foundation employees were also frozen.
Cristiana Chamorro, daughter of former President Violeta Chamorro who served as President of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997, is one of the opposition presidential candidates who aspire to lead the opposition in the general elections on November 7 in which Daniel Ortega will seek his third consecutive reelection.
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