Managua.- A journalist from the Radio Corporación station, critical of the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, denounced this Monday that he survived the attack by a man with a knife and pointed to the National Police as responsible for the attack, in the context of the socio-political crisis that The Central American country has lived for three years.
Journalist Marisol Balladares, who has already denounced other alleged government aggressions against her, reported that last Wednesday, when she left the radio station in Managua, she was attacked by a “tall, strong person, who threw himself at me with a knife.” .
«That day the Radio Corporation was besieged with the presence of the Police, I tried to get out quickly and I heard when one of the officers was calling on the radio, saying that the target was moving south, precisely me, five minutes passed when someone he pounced with a knife that passed near my abdomen, “said the journalist, when she reported the case to the non-governmental Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH).
According to the story, Balladares, who said he knew self-defense, realized the attack in time, dodged the knife and launched a kick that knocked the man down, he got up, picked up the weapon again and made another attempt, but the The woman reached in and beat the aggressor with a blow to the abdomen, who walked away with threats, without the police intervening.
Efe has tried to obtain the version of the National Police on that complaint, without success yet.
WOUNDED JOURNALIST
The journalist claimed that the man, who wounded her on the finger of her left hand, only walked away after she threw her cell phone at him, which the aggressor insistently claimed.
When asked if he thought that the Nicaraguan Police had coordinated the attack, Balladares responded directly: “I think so, because they did not steal my wallet or my money, the objective was to stab me and take away my phone.”
If I had been distracted, who knows if I was telling the story. I am very cautious and apart from that I know how to defend myself very well (…) he is a strong guy, the blow I gave him was so that he would not get up so quickly, he surely works with the Police, “said the journalist.
The director of Legal Advice of the CPDH Karla Sequeira indicated that she will exhaust all legal channels with the case so that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) grant precautionary measures to Balladares.
Among the latest attacks suffered by the journalist is that of May 2020, when a group of officials tried to force her out of her home after it became known that she suffered from covid-19.
SIGNALS
Shortly before this aggression, the Government of Nicaragua had issued a “White Paper” on the covid-19 pandemic, in which the Executive accused the independent press of supporting an alleged “failed coup” and fabricating false news. .
The disagreements between the Nicaraguan government and the independent press were accentuated in April 2018, when massive protests against Ortega were controlled with armed attacks by armed police and civilians that left hundreds of prisoners, dead or missing.
Both the IACHR and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (Acnudh) have denounced the Ortega government for “systematic” violations of people’s rights, including “crimes against humanity.”
In a recent report on human rights, the United States pointed out to the Nicaraguan Executive of “serious restrictions on freedom of expression and the press, including threats of violence, censorship and criminal defamation”, as part of a policy of “exile, jail or death ».
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