RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The information was released by the Nicaraguan University Alliance, to which the young man belongs. He became popular for challenging the head of state live on TV.
Nicaraguan student leader Lesther Alemán, who challenged Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega at the start of a failed national debate 3 years ago, was arrested on Monday night, denounced the Nicaraguan University Alliance (AUN).
Read also: Check out our coverage on Nicaragua
“On July 5, the person who brought the voice of all Nicaraguans to stand up to Ortega was arrested,” AUN said in a statement.
The National Police has neither confirmed nor denied the arrest at this time.
Another student leader, Max Jérez was also arrested on Monday night, Dolly Mora Ubando, a member of the university alliance said in an audio recording.
Before his detention, Jérez wrote a message on Twiter in which he stated: “At this very moment the police of the regime is entering the safe house where I am sheltered.”
“Neither repression nor jail will stop the power of the Nicaraguan people. We will continue and we will be free because there is still hope,” he added.
Alemán said Ortega is “a wounded beast”
In a TV interview last Friday with EFE news agency, student leader Alemán said that Ortega is a “totally wounded beast” who has crossed the red lines and is capable of anything, and that amid the current “hunt” for arrests of opposition political leaders, he had prepared himself for two scenarios: jail or death.
Alemán, 23 years old, who became famous for facing Ortega in a live television broadcast, confided in the interview that he had not valued what it would mean to attack the ex-Marxist guerrilla and “to have shown how mortal was the one who once was believed to be divine.”
When asked if having challenged Ortega to step down had made him a “target,” Alemán answered: “I want to say something to you on that question. I would do it again as often as necessary because I feel that I exercised a right I have as a Nicaraguan: to challenge power.”
“I did not consider what it was going to entail to challenge Ortega, and by not considering it, I was scared of becoming the second most hated and best known person in the country in some polls,” added the student leader, who said he was surprised by the “level of hatred” towards him from Sandinista sympathizers, police and “paramilitaries.”
Alemán said he feared for his life and that is why he prepared his exiled parents for “two scenarios: jail or death,” and that he was going to stay in Nicaragua and face the consequences. “Having nothing and having lost everything, the only thing I have left is my country,” he said.
The wave of detainees
Nicaragua has been experiencing turbulent weeks after the arrests of opposition leaders – among them 6 presidential hopefuls – in the run-up to the November 7 general elections in which Ortega, in power since 2007, is seeking re-election for 5 more years.
The Nicaraguan police are holding opposition presidential hopefuls Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, Miguel Mora and Medardo Mairena on “treason to the homeland” charges.
In addition, two former vice-chancellors, two historic former dissident Sandinista guerrilla fighters, a business leader, a banker, a former first lady, five opposition leaders, a journalist, two former NGO workers, and Cristiana Chamorro’s driver.
The president, who returned to power in 2007 after coordinating a government junta from 1979 to 1984 and presiding the country for the first time between 1985 and 1990, has accused the opposition leaders of trying to overthrow him with the support of the United States and has branded them “criminals.”
Source: Infobae