Cristiana Chamorro

Cristiana Chamorro and her fight for freedom of expression in Nicaragua

“They want to stain my name, but they will not succeed (…) They will never succeed in staining the name of my father or my mother, because I am innocent”, responded Cristiana Chamorro Barrios, 68 years old, in the trial hearing that lasted 7 days and concluded on March 11, 2022.

Chamorro is the daughter of the martyr of public liberties, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal and former Nicaraguan President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1996).

At the conclusion of said hearing, Judge Luden Quiroz, at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, found her guilty of the crimes of money laundering and alleged misappropriation and improper retention, and established for her a sentence of 8 years in prison and the obligation to pay a fine of more than 113 million cordobas.

The trial took place behind closed doors, without access to the press, with most of the witnesses being police officers and in a jail of the Judicial Assistance Directorate of the National Police, where Cristiana was taken and after each session she was transferred back to her home.

At a young age, shortly before marrying businessman Antonio Lacayo, Cristiana lived with her family the pain of the loss of her father who was massacred by the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza Debayle on January 10, 1978.

Cristiana was Executive Director of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation, a non-profit civil association that strongly supported freedom of expression and freedom of the press by training journalists since the end of Violeta Barrios’ term in office.

She was also Vice-President of the Board of Directors of Diario La Prensa, whose facilities were raided on August 13, 2021 and have remained under police occupation ever since. The print edition of the newspaper had to be suspended.

In May 2021, Cristiana had publicly expressed her intention to be the opposition candidate for the November 2021 elections and hours before her arrest she visited the Citizens for Liberty Party (CxL) to register as a pre-candidate. Cristiana was the favorite in the polls.

On June 2 of that year, members of the National Police and its Special Operations Directorate (DOEP) raided Cristiana’s house, after violently removing family members, friends and journalists who were outside the house.

Cristiana and other members of the Foundation’s team, which had suspended activities since February of that year due to the approval of the Law for the Regulation of Foreign Agents, were being investigated for the alleged crime of money laundering, accusations that Cristiana refuted upon leaving the Prosecutor’s Office, stating that the objective was to affect her presidential candidacy.

She has conditions prior to her detention that require periodic examinations and timely and quality medical attention. Since the State failed to comply with the Precautionary Measures granted by the Inter-American Commission, the Commission requested Provisional Measures from the Inter-American Court, which were granted on November 4, 2021. The Court has requested the State to proceed to the immediate release of Cristiana and has asked it to immediately adopt the necessary measures to effectively protect her life, integrity and liberty, however, to date, the State remains in contempt of the decision of the high court of human rights of the hemisphere.

For a year now, Cristiana has been detained in her home, convicted of crimes she did not commit.

Freedom for Cristiana Chamorro!

We demand to the Ortega-Murillo regime: Free Nicas Now!