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Retired Nicaraguan basic and former guerrilla chief Hugo Torres handed away on the age of 73 on Saturday, his household and authorities prosecutors stated.
Torres was a significant participant within the Nineteen Seventies Sandinista Revolution that overthrew the Somoza household dictatorship in Nicaragua.
Previous to his demise, he had been imprisoned as a part of a crackdown by President Daniel Ortega’s authorities in opposition to opposition politicians. Torres, who had as soon as labored to assist free Ortega from jail himself, break up with the Nicaraguan chief 20 years in the past.
What can we find out about his demise?
Torres’ youngsters confirmed his demise in a press release, expressing their “deep ache over the demise of our beloved father.”
The household assertion didn’t present particulars about the reason for demise, and it’s unclear whether or not the situations in jail accelerated his passing.
His youngsters stated there could be no ceremony or public funeral in accordance with their father’s needs.
The federal government prosecutor’s workplace stated that Torres had been moved to a hospital within the capital Managua, saying he handed from “sicknesses he had.”
Torres as soon as helped break Ortega out of jail throughout Nicaragua’s revolution within the Nineteen Seventies, solely to be imprisoned himself by Ortega a long time later
Why was he jailed?
Torres was certainly one of 46 opposition leaders, and potential presidential candidates, who had been jailed by Ortega forward of the nation’s presidential elections final yr.
Authorities justified the detentions by charging Torres and lots of the others on the grounds of undermining nationwide safety.
Authorities prosecutors stated on Saturday that that they had requested judicial authorities “to droop the beginning of his oral public trial for humanitarian causes.”
In response to AP information company, the trials in opposition to the presently imprisoned opposition leaders usually are not public and are held in jail. A number of the proceedings final just a few hours.
Ortega, whose rule more and more contains harsh crackdowns on demonstrations or opposition, was reelected to a fourth consecutive time period final November.
He ran nearly unopposed after jailing his opponents. The presidential elections have been criticized by election displays as a farce.
From insurgent chief to political prisoner
Torres was born on April 24, 1948 in Madriz, Nicaragua. He went on to change into a outstanding guerrilla chief within the Sandinista Revolution.
He fought alongside Ortega through the nation’s civil conflict and later turned the primary head of state safety after the revolution in 1979. He additionally helped rework the insurgent military into the skilled Nicaraguan Military, later retiring from the army within the Nineties after rising within the ranks to change into a basic.
Previous to his imprisonment and demise, he served because the vice chairman of the opposition Democratic Renovation Union (Unamos), previously generally known as the Sandinista Renovation Motion, which was based by army leaders sad with Ortega.
Through the revolution, Torres as soon as took half in an operation to free Ortega and different insurgent leaders from jail.
The chilly irony of the flip of occasions was not misplaced on Torres, who talked about it in a video assertion launched forward of his arrest.
“46 years in the past I risked my life to get Daniel Ortega and different political-prisoner colleagues out of jail,” he stated within the video final June.
“I’m 73, and I by no means thought that at this stage of my life I used to be going to be combating in opposition to one other dictatorship, now extra brutal, extra unscrupulous, extra irrational and extra autocratic than the Somoza dictatorship,” he added.
rs/wd (AP, Reuters, AFP)
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