The Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa denounces the confiscation and dismantling of its facilities

(CNN Spanish) — The newspaper the press reported this Monday in its digital edition that the Government of Nicaragua completed “the de facto confiscation” of its movable and immovable property, whose value, according to the media, reaches an amount close to US $ 10 million. According to the informative note, construction works are progressing inside the newspaper’s old facilities, without anyone officially explaining what the building will become and the fate of the equipment it contained.

The facilities of the press, a 96-year-old newspaper and one of the benchmarks in Nicaraguan journalism, were occupied by National Police officers on August 13, 2021, after a raid in which its general manager, Juan Lorenzo Hollman Chamorro, was arrested and charged with the crime of money laundering. On March 24, Hollman Chamorro was found guilty and on April 1 received a court sentence of 9 years in prison.

Hollman Chamorro declared his innocence before the charges, according to the information that his wife published in the press. In addition to Hollman, his cousins ​​Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, who was director of the newspaper, and Cristiana Chamorro, who directed the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation and was a presidential candidate, have also been arrested and accused of various crimes by the Ortega government. All of them reject the accusations and consider them a political persecution.

“For several days, regime operators have been carrying out construction works and moving some of the machinery and equipment,” expresses the media outlet in its informative note, where it adds that “however, this will not prevent the press continue doing your job of informing Nicaraguans, even without your building and now from exile”.

The Government of Nicaragua has not officially informed what will be built in the building that housed The Press. CNN consulted the government’s Communications Council about it, for the time being without a response.

According to the press release, those in charge of the construction have expressed that the media facilities could become a Training Center of the National Technological Institute (Inatec).

Furthermore, the daily the press adds that “with these actions, the Ortega-Murillo regime concretes the de facto confiscation of the assets of the industrial plant of Editorial La Prensa, located at kilometer 4.5 of the North Highway. Assets that, in the state in which they were At the time of seizure, they were worth close to $10 million.”

This fact is carried out, according to the pressdespite the fact that article 44 of the Political Constitution of Nicaragua “guarantees the right of private property of movable and immovable property and the instruments and means of production.”

According to an appraisal made in February 2021 and published by the pressthe building was valued at $1.84 million, the machinery at $6.04 million, the commercial printing plant at $3.89 million, and the furniture and office equipment at $138,810.

This complaint of the press takes place a month after its digital edition reported that its staff in the newsroom (journalists, editors, photographers and others) was “forced to leave Nicaragua due to the persecution of the Ortega regime.”

Hollman Chamorro declared his innocence before the charges, according to the information that his wife published in the press. In addition to Hollman, his cousins ​​Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, who was director of the newspaper, and Cristiana Chamorro, who directed the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation and was a presidential candidate, have also been arrested and accused of various crimes by the Ortega government. All of them reject the accusations and consider them a political persecution.