Maldonado’s wife, Nadia Robleto, told Reuters that the well-known leader of the 2018 demonstrations in Jinotepe, south of the Nicaraguan capital, had been shot four times in the intestines, lungs and right arm.
The secretary of the so-called Nicaraguan Exile Unit in Costa Rica (UEN), Yefer Bravo, to which Maldonado belongs, attributed the attack to hit men hired by Ortega, who will seek to remain in power in the Central American nation for the fourth consecutive period in the November presidential elections.
“We continue to fight despite the distance and the threats. Clearly those two boys were hired to execute him because there in my country they have silenced the voices and now we resist from exile,” said Bravo.
The Ortega government did not immediately respond to a query about Bravo’s statements and what happened to Maldonado.
More than 80,000 Nicaraguans have requested refuge in Costa Rica since the 2018 protests, but requests have risen sharply in the last three months due to the hardening of the official repression against activists and opposition politicians.
In the past three months, Ortega has detained 35 opposition leaders, suspended a rival party, and withheld newsprint, among other tactics that UN, U.S., and European officials have called abuse of power to repress. freedom of expression and free elections.