Julián Edelberto NAVARRETE SILVA

Investigative journalist Julián Edelberto Navarrete Silva was subjected to harassment in 2024 that led to his leaving the country to avoid arrest. He told PEN International that the harassment began on 26 April 2024, when two police officers arrived at his house to warn him that he was being investigated by the authorities without providing information about the reason for the investigation. After his diagnosis with colon cancer on 30 April 2024, the police officers requested pictures and documents to prove that he was in hospital. 

PEN International has learned that on 5 July 2024, officers came to Navarrete Silva’s house. When he started chemotherapy on 9 July, police again requested documentation of his whereabouts. The following day, a police patrol with two motorbikes and several officers arrived at his house, while he was hospitalised. The evening of Wednesday 10 July, Navarrete Silva decided to leave the hospital and the country with his family to avoid his detention. On 13 July 2024, at 7am, two patrol cars, two motorbikes and approximately 20 police officers arrived at his residence in Managua to detain him.  

Julián Navarrete Silva is a Nicaraguan investigative journalist. He writes for Divergentes and is a member of the Connectas platform. He worked as a journalist for Confidencial and La Prensa. He has published literary and journalistic chronicles in Reportagen magazine, Switzerland; Courrier International, France; and collaborated with The Wall Street Journal, United States; and the newspapers El País and La Razón, Spain. Navarrete was awarded with the Ortega y Gasset and Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) awards in 2022; this work was also nominated for the Gabriel García Márquez Award for excellence in research and literature. His work has been included in books such as Libertad tras las rejas (2023) (Freedom behind bars); investigations Fiscalizando al poder local (2023) (Overseeing local power) and in an Oxfam Nicaragua anthology, Otro Periodismo es Posible (2020) (Another journalism is possible).