Max Jerez

The “little teacher” of music named Max Jerez

At the age of 13, Max Jerez was already playing the recorder, the violin and the guitar, not only for the delight of his family, but also to teach others the art of music. A video circulated on social networks where he showed off those skills.

It was July 5, 2021 when the old video went viral on social networks; the Ortega police had just imprisoned him.

His desire to teach and the will to help others led him to position himself as a student leader who also participated in the National Dialogue in 2018 in the midst of the demonstrations that were being repressed by the regime.

On February 11, 2022, the regime, through a trial full of nullities, Judge Nadia Tardencilla sentenced 28-year-old Max Jerez to 13 years in prison and disqualification from running for any public office for considering that he committed the crime of “undermining national integrity”, a crime for which opponents of the regime in Nicaragua are accused. The sentence was already confirmed, on appeal, as expected due to the lack of independence of the courts.

During his freedom, the “teacher” taught many children the skills he had so that they could play music at the conservatory where he attended after high school. His dream was to become a music teacher and open a music academy that would teach underprivileged children.

Jeréz suffered closely the persecution and repression of the regime after joining the student protests in the framework of the April 2018 demonstrations, which earned him expulsion by the university authorities, preventing him from continuing with his Political Science studies at the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua, a career he was pursuing with academic excellence.

The unjust incarceration and psychological torture that he has experienced in prison deepened on September 17, 2021 when his mother Heydi Meza died and the Ortega regime’s co-opted criminal justice system did not allow him to attend the funeral or accompany her in her last days of agony.

Max Jerez did not commit any crime.

Freedom for Max Jeréz!

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