Branded a terrorist by the Nicaraguan government and a hero by her fellow protesters, Nahomy Urbina has become a leading figure in the uprising against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
Known as “Comandante Macha,” or the Blonde Commander, she has earned widespread respect not only for her efforts in mobilizing young people since protests began in April, but for doing so in the face of a cancer diagnosis.
However, last week, following death threats and a raid on her home in the capital, Managua, in which her mother and grandmother were seized by police, she was forced to flee to neighboring Costa Rica.
Campaigners say Urbina was targeted as part of a “witch hunt” using a new terrorism law that has led to protesters being accused of killings and other fabricated charges.
While she remains stranded, Urbina was fortunate to escape. Scores of other young female protesters have found themselves incarcerated in detention centers, where they have tortured and raped.
Nicaragua has been in turmoil since April, when what started as protests by students against Ortega’s social security reforms turned to mass violence.
An estimated 500 civilians have been killed since paramilitary forces began using weapons to control protests. The youngest victim was a one-year-old shot in the street as he held his father’s hand.
“Within a month of the protests starting there were close to 300 people killed. They were executed by snipers during marches, shot in the head or gut — it was incredibly brutal,” said Lydia Alpizar, executive director of IM-Defonsoras, a regional network supporting female activists.
“In the past few weeks we have seen a new wave of oppression, a witch hunt, accusing people of terrorism. Every day there are detentions and disappearances,” Alpizar said.
Alpizar’s organization has been assisting the UN — now banned from the country — to document the violations, as well as helping women flee Nicaragua.
“We are campaigning for the release of all 340 political prisoners, but we are raising awareness about around 40 women who are among the most vulnerable,” she said.
Female prisoners as young as 16 are facing sexual violence, Alpizar said. Many are single mothers with small children at home. Others have chronic health conditions and have been detained without medication.
The prisoners include three transgender women taken to male prisons where they have faced severe abuse from guards and inmates.
“The LGBTI community has been a very vocal part of the resistance,” Alpizar said. “They are always mistreated and these women have been exposed to extremely degrading treatment, made to go nude except for their pants, humiliated.”
A spokesman for the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights confirmed it had received allegations that detained women have been “victims of ill-treatment, sexual violence, harassment, discriminatory treatment and denial of medical assistance, which in some cases may even amount to torture.”
Ana Quiros, part of the Autonomous Women’s Movement, who has been campaigning for the release of the political prisoners, was injured in the first demonstration on April 18 in Managua.
The 60-year-old was ambushed by a mob carrying sticks, metal pipes and chains. She sustained head wounds and now has metal pins in her hand after her fingers were broken. Despite the attack she continues to attend protests.
On Sept. 28, the Nicaraguan police declared demonstrations illegal; the following day, more than 500 officers in riot gear were deployed to break up protesters gathering for a march.
Speaking on Sept. 30, Quiros described how, just minutes earlier, she had watched live images on television of an elderly woman being seized by police.
“It was devastating to see,” Quiros said. “This was a poor woman who made a living selling water. Yet at the first demonstration, instead of selling the water she relies on to buy food, she gave it away for free.”
While the arbitrary detentions continue, three women were released last week after law enforcers agreed there were no charges to bring.
One of them, Elsa Valle, who spent her 19th birthday in jail, became the first political prisoner to be absolved by Ortega’s regime following 75 days of illegal detention.
While in prison she learned that her father, Carlos Valle, had also been detained. Up to that point he had attended every demonstration, carrying a huge photograph of his daughter.
Valle said she received constant threats from the authorities of the El Chipote jail and at the La Esperanza detention center.
She told news program Esta Noche that she had been interrogated and beaten by hooded men who accused her of belonging to a criminal gang and murdering young students.
Valle was released by the district attorney’s office, which dropped all legal action against her and two other women accused of illegal arms possession.
However, legal paperwork stated the charges were suspended after the women collaborated with the “institutions in charge of investigation Nicaragua.”
Government forces have publicly accused Urbina of collaborating with the regime.
In a video posted on Facebook, Urbina, who was diagnosed with cancer in December last year and received chemotherapy during the uprising, revealed that she is pregnant.
She remains defiant.
“I am firm in my support for our struggle. I will not remain silent. I will continue giving interviews and telling the world what is happening in Nicaragua,” she said.
“They want me killed or detained. It is hard for me to say how my heart feels at the moment with so many political prisoners, for so many young women who have been raped and are asking for emergency contraception so they don’t have to carry forward a pregnancy that is the result of rape,” she said. “So many young people are losing their freedom, but I want you to know that I will continue the struggle with you all.”
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