墨西哥城，10月14日——当她在尼加拉瓜的父亲没有回复她的消息时，塞尔玛·布伦斯（Thelma Brenes）开始感到担忧。
MEXICO CITY, Oct 14 - Thelma Brenes grew worried when her father in Nicaragua did not return her messages.
71岁的退役陆军上校卡洛斯·布伦斯（Carlos Brenes）与69岁的妻子萨尔瓦多拉·马丁内斯（Salvadora Martinez）一起居住在首都马那瓜（Managua）南部的一处乡村住宅中。居住在荷兰的布伦斯的女儿塞尔玛请一位邻居去查看他们的状况，结果发现房子里空无一人。
Retired Army Colonel Carlos Brenes, 71, lived with his wife, Salvadora Martinez, 69, on a rural property south of the capital Managua. Brenes' daughter Thelma, living in the Netherlands, asked a neighbor to check on the couple. He found the house empty.
后来，当地居民告诉她，他们看到警察用巡逻车将这对夫妇带走了。
Local residents later told her they’d seen the police escorting the couple away in a patrol car.
这发生在2025年8月。从那以后，布伦斯一家不断向当局询问关于这对夫妇的下落、健康状况等信息，但始终得不到任何回应，甚至不知道他们是否已被拘留。
That was August 2025. Since then, the Brenes family have pleaded with the authorities for information about the couple’s whereabouts, health and status, but they have heard nothing, not even if they are in custody.
他们所知道的是，卡洛斯·布伦斯是丹尼尔·奥尔特加（Daniel Ortega）总统最直言不讳的批评者之一；而马丁内斯则是一名家庭主妇，没有参与过任何政治活动。
What they do know is that Carlos Brenes is one of President Daniel Ortega's most outspoken critics. Martinez is a homemaker with no known political involvement.
“对我们这些家属来说，这种等待和不确定性简直就是一种折磨，”塞尔玛·布伦斯说道。
"For us, as family members, this is a form of torture," said Thelma Brenes.
她属于越来越多声称自己的亲人被奥尔特加政府强迫失踪的尼加拉瓜人之一。奥尔特加在20世纪70年代加入了左翼桑地诺主义（Sandinista）运动，致力于推翻索莫萨（Somoza）的独裁政权；而卡洛斯·布伦斯也曾是当时反抗运动中的活跃成员。
She is one of growing number of Nicaraguans who say their loved ones have been forcibly disappeared by the government of Ortega. The leader rose to prominence in the leftist Sandinista movement in the 1970s, battling to overthrow the Somoza dictatorship that itself arrested and forcibly disappeared suspected dissidents. One of those who fought alongside Ortega was Carlos Brenes.
1979年索莫萨政权被推翻后，奥尔特加先后担任临时政府领导人及总统，并自2007年起持续执政至今。联合国、国际人权组织及地区领导人均指出，他在执政期间逐步建立了更加专制的统治体系，尤其是在2018年爆发反政府抗议活动之后。
After Somoza's 1979 ousting, Ortega ruled the country, first as provisional government leader and then as president. He returned to office in 2007, and has ruled Nicaragua continuously since then. During this time, the United Nations, international human rights groups and regional leaders say, he has consolidated an increasingly authoritarian system, especially since anti-government protests in 2018.
尼加拉瓜政府并未对有关布伦斯夫妇案件的详细问题作出任何回应；内政部、总检察长办公室及尼加拉瓜军队也拒绝置评。
The Nicaraguan government did not answer detailed questions regarding the Brenes and Martinez case.
（注：译文保留了原文的紧张氛围和情感色彩，同时采用了简洁明了的中文表达方式。）由流亡尼加拉瓜人领导的人权组织“记忆与正义”（Memoria y Justicia）以及政治犯亲属表示，截至9月底，尼加拉瓜至少有68人因政治原因被囚禁，其中包括31名遭受强迫失踪的受害者。
The Interior Ministry, Attorney General's Office and the Nicaraguan Army did not respond to requests for comment. TOOL 'TO SOW FEAR' Human rights groups like Memoria y Justicia, led by Nicaraguans in exile, and relatives of political prisoners said that at least 68 people were imprisoned in Nicaragua for political reasons as of the end of September, including 31 victims of enforced disappearance.
联合国将强迫失踪定义为国家代理人剥夺自由，随后隐瞒该人下落。
The UN defines enforced disappearance as the deprivation of liberty by agents of the state, followed by concealment of the person’s whereabouts.
家属告诉路透社，尼加拉瓜当局对拘留不提供任何理由：他们极少确认逮捕、安排法庭听证会，或向家属提供信息。人们就这样凭空消失了。
Family members told Reuters that the Nicaraguan authorities offer no justification for the detentions: they rarely confirm an arrest, schedule court hearings, or provide information to families. People simply vanish.
上个月，三名受邀调查尼加拉瓜人权状况的联合国专家表示，他们记录了因政治理由实施的监禁、酷刑和迫害，这是针对平民的大规模系统性攻击的一部分。
Last month, three UN experts asked to investigate human rights in Nicaragua said they had documented imprisonment, torture and persecution on political grounds as part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians.
据联合国专家称，自2018年政治镇压开始以来，至少有八名因政治原因被拘留者死于国家羁押中。他们表示已核实自2018年4月以来的161起强迫失踪案件，持续时间从几天到数年不等。
According to the UN experts, at least eight people detained for political reasons have died in state custody since the political crackdown began in 2018. They said they have verified 161 cases of enforced disappearance since April 2018, ranging from a few days to several years.
奥尔特加政府将批评者斥为“法西斯分子”和“政变策划者”，并未对失踪指控发表评论。联合国表示，自2018年以来发出的置评请求，未收到马纳瓜方面的任何官方回复。
The Ortega government has dismissed critics as "fascists" and "coup mongers" and has not commented on the accusations of disappearances. The UN said it has received no official response from Managua to requests for comment sent since 2018.
“政府将强迫失踪作为一种蓄意策略：不仅在被拘留者中，而且在其家属中播下恐惧，并向整个社会发出警告：‘这可能发生在你身上，’”联合国尼加拉瓜人权问题专家组成员里德·布罗迪（Reed Brody）说。
"The government uses enforced disappearance as a deliberate strategy: to sow fear not only among the detained person, but also among their family members, and to warn the entire society: ‘This could happen to you,’" said Reed Brody, a member of the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua.
这种手段在拉丁美洲并不新鲜。在过去几十年里，阿根廷、巴西、智利等国的军事独裁政权实施强迫失踪，作为大规模镇压的一部分以维持政权统治。
The tactic is not new to Latin America. In previous decades, military dictatorships in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and other countries carried out enforced disappearances as part of widespread repression to keep the regimes in power.
“两年多没人见过他” 学生时代，卡洛斯·布雷内斯曾参加抗议活动，反对索莫萨家族最后一位独裁者阿纳斯塔西奥·索莫萨，该家族统治尼加拉瓜长达四十年。布雷内斯加入革命组织桑地诺民族解放阵线，并协助策划了1979年推翻独裁政权的起义。
'NO ONE HAS SEEN HIM IN MORE THAN TWO YEARS' As a student, Carlos Brenes joined the protests against Anastasio Somoza, the last of a family clan that ruled Nicaragua for four decades. Brenes enlisted in the revolutionary Sandinista National Liberation Front and helped plan the insurrection that overthrew the dictatorship in 1979.
但1992年前后，他对奥尔特加感到幻灭并从军队退役。2018年，他再次参加大规模抗议——这一次是反对桑地诺政府。他因恐怖主义指控入狱，10个月后获释。随后，在2025年，他失踪了。
But around 1992, he became disillusioned with Ortega and retired from the Army. In 2018, he once again joined mass protests — this time against the Sandinista government. He was jailed on terrorism charges and released after 10 months. Then, in 2025, he disappeared.
美洲人权法院在4月的一份报告中表示，曾非正式获悉布雷内斯及其妻子因叛国罪受审并被判处15年监禁。家属称未获知审判程序，并因布雷内斯患有糖尿病神经病变而担忧其健康状况。
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights said in an April report that it had been informed unofficially that Brenes and his wife were tried for treason and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The family said they were not informed of the proceedings and feared for Brenes' health because he suffers from diabetic neuropathy.
法院呼吁尼加拉瓜政府保护这对夫妇及其他政治犯的生命，并提供他们的下落信息。尼加拉瓜政府未予回应。布雷内斯并非唯一一位失踪的前桑地诺成员。
The Court called on the Nicaraguan government to protect the lives of the couple and other political prisoners and provide information about their whereabouts. The Nicaraguan government has not replied. Brenes is not the only ex-Sandinista who has disappeared.
维克托·博伊塔诺，65岁，意大利裔父亲与尼加拉瓜裔母亲之子，12岁时受母亲榜样感召加入游击队运动，其母亲因政治活动曾遭索莫萨独裁政权酷刑折磨。革命期间，他在军事学院受训，晋升为陆军上校，但于2007年退役，并开始指控桑地诺政府腐败和政治罪行。
Victor Boitano, 65, the son of an Italian father and a Nicaraguan mother, joined the guerrilla movement at the age of 12, inspired by the example of his mother, who was tortured by the Somoza dictatorship for her political activism. During the revolution, he trained at military academies and rose to the rank of colonel in the Army, but retired in 2007 and began to accuse the Sandinista government of corruption and political crimes.
其妻子尤金尼亚·巴列目击了事发过程并称在丈夫被捕时曾被一名警官殴打，她表示：2024年4月，武装警察和便衣人员在没有逮捕令的情况下，在马那瓜的家中将他逮捕。他随即在监狱系统中失踪。巴列辗转多座监狱试图寻找他，但称狱警总是把她支开。
In April 2024, armed police and plainclothes officers arrested him without a warrant at his home in Managua, said his wife, Eugenia Valle, who witnessed the event and says she was hit by an officer during her husband's arrest. He disappeared into the prison system. Valle went from one prison to the next trying to find him, but said the guards always directed her elsewhere.
尼加拉瓜总统府、内政部、总检察长办公室和军方对有关博伊塔诺案件的一系列详细问题未作回应。
The Nicaraguan Presidency, Interior Ministry, Attorney General's Office and the Army did not respond to a series of detailed questions regarding Boitano's case.
在他失踪六个月后，瓦列在女管家打电话告诉她大约有30名警察包围了她的房子后逃离了该国。
Six months after his disappearance, Valle fled the country after her housekeeper called her and told her there were some 30 police officers surrounding her house.
目前流亡意大利的瓦列表示，她每晚 barely 能睡三个小时，一直为丈夫的命运而担忧，丈夫患有高血压和糖尿病。
Now in exile in Italy, she said she barely sleeps three hours a night and is racked by worry over the fate of her husband, who suffers from hypertension and diabetes.
“我们不知道发生了什么，他的情况如何，或者他在哪里，”瓦列说。“已经超过两年没有人见过他了。”路透社
"We don't know what's happening, how he is, or where he is," said Valle. "No one has seen him in more than two years." REUTERS