Nica News Roundup (Morning Edition), Featuring OrMu Cops

Alex Vanegas

February 28, 2019

Nicaragua

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On the second day of negotiations in Managua, here are the morning’s top stories.

OrMu Cops Harass Alex Vanegas, Again.

It wasn’t enough to imprison Alex Vanegas six times, for the unspeakable crime of running in protest against Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. Today, barely twenty-four hours  after he was finally released to house arrest, OrMu police officers chased, cornered, and lifted Mr. Vanegas off the street, twice. He has since been let go with the warning “stop it!”

It certainly sounds like Mr. Vanegas violated the conditions of his house arrest, doesn’t it?

Not quite. On November 2, the Day of the Dead, Mr. Vanegas was grabbed from the cemetery and taken to prison. On November 22nd, he was charged with the crime of “public scandal,” a misdemeanor that carries the penalty of a fine or community service, not prison (see Law 641, Title II, Chapter III, Article 537).

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In other words, Mr. Vanegas was held without charges for a full ten days; he was then charged with a misdemeanor that carries no prison sentence but sent back to prison anyway, without seeing the inside of a courtroom at all.

In fact, Mr. Vanegas spent a total 119 days in prison, without appearing in front of a judge because his hearing kept being postponed. The last postponement occurred on January 30th.

Mr. Vanegas shouldn’t be subjected to police harassment, but that did not stop the OrMu police from taking him twice. He was finally released. He told local media that officers hit him and told him “Stop acting the fool on the streets, or we’ll take you to prison.”

The Comité Pro Liberación the Presos Políticos remarked, via Twitter, that the safety of the individuals who were transferred to house arrest is by no means guaranteed.


 

OrMu Objects to International Guarantors at Negotiations.

According to journalist Luis Galeano, an anonymous source with first hand knowledge about the negotiations, indicated that OrMu does not want international guarantors at the negotiations. The administration’s position is that “this is a problem between Nicaraguans, so Nicaraguans must resolve it, without mediators or international guarantors.”

Yesterday, Secretary General Luis Almagro, of the OAS, stated that his organization was ready and willing to step into the role of guarantors.

According to Galeano’s reporting, neither the Catholic Church, nor the Alianza wants a negotiation without guarantors.

Galeano also revealed that the “nine points” that both sides agreed upon are not substantive. Instead, they deal with minutiae like “meeting place, rules for debate, moderators, and dissemination of information.”

Other points of contention involved the OrMu administration’s decision to dismiss Mons. Rolando Alvarez, reducing the presence of the Catholic Church to two people. The administration also objected to the Alianza’s request to name the Catholic Church as mediators, rather than just witnesses.

If there is no agreement on these issues, the negotiations could be fatally stalled.

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