Former guerrilla leader who helped Ortega dies as a political prisoner in Nicaragua  

Retired General and former guerrilla leader Hugo Torres died on Saturday at a prison in Managua after being deemed a political prisoner by the Nicaraguan regime.

Torres was a prominent Sandinista guerrilla leader who helped Nicaraguan President Daniel escape from prison in 1974. Ortega Torres was a key player in the 1979 Revolution that overthrew the Somoza dictatorship.  

After the revolution, Torres became the first head of state security. He retired in the 1990s after becoming a general.

However, the former general split from Ortega two decades ago. He became the vice president of the opposition party Democratic Renovation Union (Unamos), made up of military leaders who were unhappy with Ortega.

Torres was arrested last year along with 46 other opposition leaders last June ahead of the country’s presidential elections, which have been called a farce by international organizations. He was charged with “conspiracy to undermine national integrity.”

"Forty-six years ago, I risked my life to get Daniel Ortega and other political-prisoner colleagues out of prison," Torres said in a video last June.

"I am 73, and I never thought that at this stage of my life I was going to be fighting against another dictatorship, now more brutal, more unscrupulous, more irrational, and more autocratic than the Somoza dictatorship,'' he added.

His children confirmed his death in a statement—however, no details about the cause of death were provided.