Suyen Barahona, as president of the Nicaraguan Unión Democrática Renovadora (UNAMOS), was kidnapped and sent to the country’s infamously grim El Chipote prison for 606 days. She was jailed solely for her political involvement and human rights activism, a victim of the crackdown carried out by President Daniel Ortega’s government prior to national elections. Along with three of her colleagues, she was tortured, barred from communicating with her four-year-old son, and kept in solitary confinement. When Barahona was finally released earlier this year, she was deported to the United States and illegally stripped of her nationality.

Barahona’s harrowing story echoes those of hundreds of other women imprisoned in El Chipote who were singled out for particularly vicious treatment. In the face of such adversity, women such as Barahona remain committed to promoting democracy and empowering women politically around the world.

Read more at: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/new-fund-to-advance-women-s-political-leadership