The Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa denounced the “theft” of his assets and his building in Managua

The La Prensa newspaper, the oldest in Nicaragua, on Tuesday reported the “theft” of his industrial plantin Managua, valued nearly 10 million dollars, by the government of President Daniel Ortega.

“The structures of the newspaper La Prensa woke up this Tuesday, August 23, without the sign that had the name of the oldest newspaper in the country and which was a landmark at the northern entrance of the Nicaraguan capital,” said that tested, founded on August 2, 1926, and that It has been occupied by the police since 13 August 2021.

“With this action begins the circus that the dictatorship of Ortega Murillo will carry out this Tuesday, August 23, to formalize the theft of goods from the Editorial La Prensa industrial plant, located at kilometer 4.5 of the north highway, Managua, worth nearly $ 10 million“, stressed the newspaper, which is now only published digitally.

According to that newspaper, the Sandinista government ordered the removal of the La Prensa sign at the entrance to the building and summoned “its media for a press conference on an installation act of the José Coronel Urtecho Cultural and Polytechnic Center” .

A cultural center?

Nicaragua’s Vice President, Rosario Murillo, who worked in La Prensa in the 1970s, announced this the day before as part of the 42nd anniversary celebration of the National Literacy Crusade would install today the “José Coronel Urtecho Cultural and Polytechnic Centerwithout specifying the place.

“We will publish all the tenders and all the offers of that center which covers a very populous and very popular area of ​​the capital,” said Murillo, wife of President Ortega.

In his complaint, La Prensa indicated that “the theft (of his assets) occurred despite the trial of the newspaper’s general manager, Juan Lorenzo Holmann, obviously money laundering, the Public Prosecutor did not submit evidence to prove the alleged wrongdoing“.

“Therefore, there is no indication that the company’s assets are linked to this crime,” he said.

According to La Prensa, whose editorial office was forced into exile last July after the arrest of two employees, “although they could not prove the alleged crime, on March 31 the judge Nadia Camila Tardencilla Rodríguez, head of the Second District Criminal Court of Managua, also sentenced Holmann to nine years in prison. disqualified from exercising his profession or position, he imposed a millionaire fine “.

“Now the regime is finalizing the process by formalizing the theft of the assets of the La Prensa editorial”, added Nicaragua’s most emblematic media.

confiscation

The facilities of La Prensa, located in an industrial area in northern Managua, have been in the hands of the National Police since last August 13, when Nicaraguan authorities said that the outlet would be It has been used to commit crimes of “customs fraud, money laundering, goods and assets”.

Holmann, grandson of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who defeated Ortega in the 1990 elections, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for the crime of “money laundering”.

La Prensa said a rotary printer was among the confiscated assets $ 2.01 million and a $ 3.89 million commercial presswith the ability to print, bind or paste “books, pamphlets, pamphlets, leaflets and any other printed material, including ballot papers”.

The newspaper warned that Nicaragua’s political constitution prohibits confiscation and that the state can seize private property only when those affected are compensated.

La Prensa’s complaint is part of the socio-political crisis that Nicaragua has been going through since April 2018 and which, according to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR), left at least 355 dead -of which Ortega admitted 200-, more than 200,000 exiles and 190 prisoners.

According to the Nicaraguan Movement of Journalists and Independent Communicators (PCIN), about 150 journalists, including the staff of La Prensa, have opted for exile since the start of the crisis.

Source: EFE and AP

PB