17
Jun
2026
Watch
Political prisoners in Nicaragua – the cases of Carlos Brenes, Salvadora del Socorro Martínez Aburto and Brooklyn Rivera
Madam President, cases such as those of Carlos Brenes and Salvadora Martínez highlight the human cost of the Ortega y Murillo dictatorship. These are elderly people, with health problems, who were arrested and convicted through a fraudulent trial for alleged treason. Their families still do not know where they are and what state they are in. The death of Brooklyn Rivera, in state custody after years of arbitrary detention, is another reminder that repression in Nicaragua has deadly consequences. This regime, which persecutes political opponents and persecutes the Catholic Church, has a growing alignment with the regime of Putin's Russia, which is nothing more than the search for support among authoritarian allies abroad, as it also has the support of the Castro regime in Cuba. Therefore, we not only demand the immediate release of all political prisoners in Nicaragua and that they respond and be held accountable for their actions, but also that we take into account when we maintain relations with Cuba what must be done to defend democracy in Latin America.