Hugo Torres Jiménez

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Hugo Torres Jiménez
Hugo Torres 2013 (cropped).jpg
Torres in 2013
Born (1948-04-25) 25 April 1948 (age 73)
Madriz, Nicaragua
CitizenshipNicaragua
EmployerNicaraguan Armed Forces
TitleBrigadier General (ret.)
Political partySandinista National Liberation Front
Sandinista Renovation Movement
 [es]

Hugo Torres Jiménez (born 25 April 1948) is a Nicaraguan former Sandinista guerrilla and military leader. He is a retired Brigadier General in the Nicaraguan Armed Forces. During the Sandinista National Liberation Front effort to overthrow the Somoza family regime, Torres was the only guerrilla who participated in both the 1974 Christmas party raid that freed future President Daniel Ortega among other prisoners, and the 1978 raid on the , freeing another 60 political prisoners. He later became a critic of Ortega, leaving the FSLN to join the Sandinista Renovation Movement and later its successor the  [es], serving as vice-president of both parties. In June 2021 he was part of a wave of arrests of opposition figures by the Ortega administration.

Biography[]

Hugo Torres Jiménez was born on 25 April 1948, in Somoto, Madriz (near the Honduran border.)[1][2] The son of Cipriano Torres, a telegraphist and Somoza National Guard lieutenant, and Isabel Jiménez,[3][4] at five Torres moved to León, where he grew up a few houses away from Rigoberto López Pérez, who killed Anastasio Somoza García in 1956.[2]

Torres studied law at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (though his passion was journalism) and like many other young dissidents, it was there that he was radicalized against the Somoza regime.[4] He joined the FSLN in 1971 and worked in barrio mobilization in the early 1970s.[3] He is the only guerrilla who participated in both of the Sandinistas' two largest and most successful operations against the Somoza regime.[5] In the 27 December 1974 Christmas party raid and hostage-taking at the home of José María "Chema" Castillo Quant, Minister of Agriculture,[4] attended by senior Somoza government officials and diplomats, Torres was second in command ("Comandante Uno", in the "Juan José Quezada" command) to .[6] Subsequent negotiations freed Sandinista political prisoners including future Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega,[6] who had been imprisoned for seven years for bank robbery.[6] Torres was also second-in-command to Eden Pastora during the August 1978 assault on the ,[3] which freed 60 political prisoners.[2] In both cases, militants successfully took high-profile hostages and exchanged them for political prisoners and safe passage to Cuba.[4]

Torres worked in logistics in Honduras for the FSLN's Northern Front.[3] He was Chief of the Political Directorate of the Sandinista Popular Army (EPS), a member of the FSLN Defense and Security Commission, and a member of the FSLN Assembly.[3] After the Somoza dictatorship fell in 1979, Torres served as Vice Minister of Interior and Chief of State Security under Tomás Borge, before being moved to the Defense Ministry, where he was the EPS delegate to the Council of State.[3] He traveled to the Soviet Union to visit Nicaraguan students attending the Frunze Military Academy.[3]

In the 1980s, Torres was honored with the Order of Carlos Fonseca, awarded to members of the government or party who demonstrated moral, ethical merit and adherence to constitutional principles.[7]

He attained the rank of Colonel in the Sandinista Popular Army and subsequently, in the Nicaraguan Army, was a Bridgier General until retiring in 1998.[1]

Torres is also a writer, publishing poetry in the 1980s in the Ministry of Culture's magazine Poesía libre, and later prefaced a collection Poesía de la fuerza armada (Poetry of the armed forces).[8] In 2003 he published a memoir called Rumbo norte. Historia de un sobreviviente (2003),[6] with a prologue by Sergio Ramírez.[8] In 2017, he published a second book, a poetry collection called Coplas y algunos poemas infiltrados.[8] Chiefly inspired by the parades of his youth, with drumming and dancing, the book also contains romantic poems; it opens with a poem dedicated to Daisy Zamora which he wrote just a few days after the 1978 National Palace raid.[8]

He split with the FSLN, becoming vice-president of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS)[2] and for a time was an opposition deputy in the National Assembly with the MRS.[9] He has particularly criticized Daniel Ortega's administration since the 2018 mass protests and bloody government suppression of them.[1] In 2019 he said of Ortega, "This dictatorship is fiercer, more totalitarian than that of the Somozas," noting not only greater violence by Ortega but also more total control of sectors like trade unions, universities and courts that the Somoza regime had not captured.[6] However Torres felt that unlike the Somoza case, the Ortega situation called for non-violent resistance and expressed optimism in the Nicaraguan people "understood that it is by civic way that this situation has to be resolved."[6] As of 2021, Torres is vice-president of the  [es] (Unamos) party, formerly the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS).[5]

On 13 June 2021, Torres was part of a wave of arrests of opposition leaders and civic figures by the Ortega government, beginning with the arrests of four opposition pre-candidates for president in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election.[5] Arrested with Torres were the president of Unamos, Suyén Barahona; former MRS president Ana Margarita Vijil; and Unamos members and leaders Dora María Téllez and Victor Hugo Tinoco, the latter two both former Sandinista guerrillas like Torres.[5] They are being investigated under controversial , passed in December 2020, which allows the government to detain anyone it designates a "traitor to the homeland".[5] In a video statement just before his arrest, Torres said, "Forty-six years ago I risked my life to get Daniel Ortega out of jail [...] those who once embraced principles today have betrayed them."[10]

Personal life[]

Torres was married and divorced from Cristina Cuadra (sister of Joaquin Cuadra Lacayo, Army Chief of Staff; Cuadra remarried to , a long-time FSLN militant serving as Army Deputy Chief of Staff).[3]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Quiénes son los 20 detenidos por el régimen orteguista en Nicaragua". Confidencial (in Spanish). 16 June 2021. Archived from the original on 23 June 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Cid, Amalia del. "11 Opositores Encarcelados En Las Últimas Semanas; Estos Son Sus Breves Perfiles." Archived 23 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine La Prensa, 14 June 2021, via ProQuest.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Nicaraguan Biographies: A Resource Book. U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs. 1988. p. 21. Archived from the original on 25 June 2021. Retrieved 13 June 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Lous, Fabrice Le (8 October 2017). "Hugo Torres Jiménez, el guerrillero de los dos asaltos". La Prensa (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Díaz López, Karen. "Policía Captura a Los Opositores Dora María Téllez, Ana Margarita Vijil, Suyén Barahona, Hugo Torres y Víctor Hugo Tinoco." La Prensa, 13 June 2021, via ProQuest.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Agüero, Arnulfo. "Hugo Torres Jiménez: 'Esta Dictadura Es Más Feroz, Más Totalitaria Que La De Los Somoza'." Archived 18 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine La Prensa, 27 December 2019. Via ProQuest.
  7. ^ Navas, Lucía. "Rosario Murillo Revive La Orden «Carlos Fonseca Amador» Para Premiar a Las Turbas Orteguistas." Archived 29 November 2019 at the Wayback Machine La Prensa, 23 November 2019, via ProQuest.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Agüero, Arnulfo (13 November 2017). ""Fui coplero con tambores de lata", revela el general en retiro Hugo Torres Jiménez". La Prensa (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 13 November 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  9. ^ "General Hugo Torres, diputado nicaraguense del Movimiento Renovador Sandinista". www.wradio.com.co (in Spanish). 24 July 2008. Archived from the original on 26 June 2021. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  10. ^ "Así te contamos la redada emprendida por el régimen contra cuatro dirigentes de Unamos". La Prensa (in Spanish). 13 June 2021. Archived from the original on 13 June 2021. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
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