Hugo Torres, one of the emblematic leaders of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, died this Saturday, eight months after being arrested by the government of Daniel Ortega.
According to the relatives, the one known as “commander one” passed away at 73 years old, after opposition leaders denounced for weeks doubts about his whereabouts and state of health.
“We communicate with deep sorrow the death of our beloved father,” his children said in a statement.
The cause of death was not reported at this time.
The retired army general fought alongside current President Daniel Ortega during the country’s revolution and helped free him from jail in 1974.
But then he accused Ortega of becoming a dictator and founded an opposition party.
As a result, Torres was one of the opposition figures arrested before the elections of last year.
Like other ex-guerrillas who opposed Ortega, he was accused by the Prosecutor’s Office of charges of “treason against the fatherland.”
Sandinista hero
Torres was seen as one of the heroes of the Sandinista revolution against the brutal dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in the 1970.
At the end of 1974 was one of the 13 guerrillas who carried out an operation to kidnap high-ranking officials of the Somoza regime during a party in honor of the US ambassador in Managua, Turner Shelton.
In exchange for the lives of the hostages, the Sandinistas asked for an amount of money and the release of their fellow detainees, including Ortega.
However, he also poet and former deputy was among the ex-guerrillas arrested ed last June in what critics described as a repression against opponents of the government.
They were prevented from participating in the elections in which Ortega was elected for the fourth consecutive term.
Torres, then vice president of Unamos, an opposition party created after Ortega’s departure in 1995, was charged with “conspiracy to undermine national integrity.”
Unamos said that Torres had been subjected to “ physical and psychological torture” since he was detained.
- They denounce that the Nicaraguan justice condemned opponents in trials to closed door to sentences of up to years in prison
According to the party, last month they had asked the government about his state of health, but they had no answer.
Torres had been “denied freedom in inhuman conditions and subjected to a legal process without guarantees,” according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.
Now you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate it so you don’t miss our best content.
- Do you already know our YouTube channel? Subscribe!