Violeta Granera
Violeta Granera: imprisonment in reprisal for her tireless demand for democracy and respect for human rights
Violeta Granera Padilla is a 70-year-old sociologist. She was director of the Movement for Nicaragua and former candidate for vice president of the Republic for the National Coalition for Democracy in 2016. National Coordinator of the Frente Amplio por la Democracia (FAD) and member of the Political Council of the Unidad Nacional Azul y Blanco (UNAB).
Her father, Ramiro Granera, was a senator for the Liberal Party and was assassinated by Sandinista guerrillas in 1978, a year before the Sandinista Front took power in Nicaragua. Granera and his family went into exile and only returned in 1990 after the triumph of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro.
Violeta participated in different protests from 2007 until her arrest in June 2021, denouncing nationally and internationally the repression in Nicaragua and exercising her right of citizen participation for the reestablishment of democracy and respect for human rights.
Violeta was detained since June 8, 2021, she spent the first three days under police custody in her home and then, on June 11, in the evening hours, the authorities transferred her in an unofficial vehicle to a site to the prisons of El Nuevo Chipote.
She was not allowed any visits from her family until after the first 80 days of her detention. The arbitrary detention took place a few days after Violeta showed up outside Cristiana Chamorro’s house during the raid on the home of the former Director of the Violeta Barrios Foundation.
After a judicial process in which the guarantees of due process were disrespected, Violeta was sentenced in March 2022 by Judge Felix Salmerón to 8 years in prison and disqualification from holding public office, as requested by the prosecutor, for the alleged crimes of conspiracy to commit undermining national integrity.
The trial against Granera took place in the prisons of the Judicial Assistance Directorate, evidencing the subordination of the Judicial Power in the police state imposed by the regime. After being sentenced Violeta expressed, “Everyone in Nicaragua, including you (police, judges and prosecutors) deserve to live in freedom, without this we will never be able to move forward.”
Her family has recently issued a statement in which, alarmed by her physical condition, they recall that she has multiple chronic health problems and that the deterioration in her health is evident after 10 months in prison.
The IACHR granted her precautionary measures on August 23, 2019 due to threats and disqualification from sectors related to the government towards her person and members of her nuclear family. The measures were never implemented by the State, and on the contrary, the authorities proceeded months later to arbitrarily detain Violeta.
On June 24, 2021, the IACHR Court granted Provisional Measures in her favor after considering the lack of information about the procedural situation, the concealment of the place of detention, the impossibility of legal assistance from trusted lawyers, the prolonged incommunicado detention, her condition as an active politician, concluding that it is, prima facie, an arbitrary detention, which, given the characteristics of the case, supports the situation of urgency and gravity susceptible of irreparable consequences.
The Court requested his immediate release, while the State remained in contempt of the measures granted. In May 2022, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Violeta’s detention is arbitrary based on four of the five categories it analyzes according to its working methods and therefore, she should be released immediately.
Freedom for Violeta Granera!
We demand to the Ortega-Murillo regime: Free Nicas Now!
