By Jorge Antonio Rocha
MEXICO (AA) – Police in Nicaragua apprehended four members of the opposition party Unamos in the last 24 hours.
Dora Maria Tellez Arguello was apprehended Sunday morning as well as Ana Margarita Vijil when police raided their residences.
Before her arrest, Vijil took to social media and posted a video in which she denounced the police operation outside her home.
"My house has police outside, and it is possibly an imminent raid. This video will come out in case they detain me illegally, and I want to leave it, what I have already said in other moments. We continue the fight. This is part of the process to get rid of Daniel Ortega. Nobody here cracks down. Daniel Ortega is leaving. We are going to take him out," she said just before she was apprehended.
Arguello was a prominent figure during the Sandinista revolution in 1979, achieving the rank of commander and founder of the Sandinista Renewal Movement, or MRS. The movement changed its name to Unamos after the Sandinistas strayed from their original revolutionary values.
Vijil was president of the MRS and has been a vocal activist against the Ortega-Murillo regime.
Moments later, police arrested the leader of Unamos, Suyen Barahona, "for carrying out acts that undermine [the country’s] independence, sovereignty and self-determination, inciting foreign interference in internal affairs, requesting military intervention and organizing with financing from foreign powers to carry out acts of terrorism and destabilization,” according to the authorities.
Both Arguello and Vijil were apprehended for the same charges, which constitute a violation of the "Law for the Defense of the People's Right to Independence." The law has been used to carry out arrests against prominent political dissidents, including presidential candidates and activists.
Tamara Davila, another member of Unamos, was also arrested Saturday at her home in Managua.
The arrests add to the incarceration of 15 dissidents and presidential candidates in Nicaragua in the last 15 days.
