Latest blow to the press in Nicaragua: regime confiscates the country's oldest newspaper

The regime of Daniel Ortega has completed the confiscation of La Prensa, the oldest newspaper in Nicaragua. In the building located in Managua, the signs of the emblematic media were removed on the 23rd. In its place was inaugurated that same day by the regime a Cultural and Polytechnic Center named José Coronel Urtecho. La Prensa issued a statement following the closing:

"Confiscation of the press is a legal atrocity The statement also states that the accusations against the more than 190 political prisoners, honorable and innocent people, including the general manager of La Prensa, Juan Lorenzo Holman Chamorro, and the members of its board of directors, Cristiana and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios," the statement said.

The facilities and all the press machinery used by La Prensa were confiscated by Daniel Ortega's regime on August 13, 2021. The newspaper reported that the expropriated assets are worth US$10 million. In addition, its general manager, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, was arrested and remains in prison.

A personal story

From 1967 to 1974 Ortega's wife, Rosario Murillo, worked with the Chamorro family, as secretary to the director of La Prensa, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, who was assassinated by the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1978. La Prensa even defended Daniel Ortega's rights when he was a prisoner of the Somoza regime between 1967 and 1974.

Ana María Chamorro de Holmannone of the owners of the legendary newspaper and sister of the murdered editor, considers it an irony that the person who led the confiscation was Rosario Murillo: "She was very much of La Prensa when she worked with us, for seven years she was Pedro's secretary. [Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal. From that Rosario Murillo I would not have expected it, but from this one I expect everything.”

For his part journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, son of Pedro Joaquín, to whom the regime also expropriated the headquarters of Confidencial in 2018, has denounced on Twitter the recent outrages to the family business. He has published a tweet to refer to the choice of the name of the new cultural center: "In 1973, the poet José Coronel Urtecho wrote: 'for the conscience of the country, when La Prensa stops publishing, it is as if nothing happened, or everything was a lie'. Today Daniel Ortega confiscates La Prensa and to wash his crime he baptizes it as the José Coronel Cultural Center.”

Attacks on press freedom

So far this year, the movement Journalists and Independent Communicators of Nicaragua (PCIN) has registered more than 464 aggressions against the press. Among the abuses committed by the Sandinista regime were forced disappearances, physical assaults, arbitrary detentions, torture and kidnappings.

During the first quarter of this year, more than 175 attacks on press freedom and freedom of expression were registered in Nicaragua, according to PCIN. The main aggressors identified are the police, the judiciary, official propagandists and people who belong to the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional) of the regime.