80,000 demand release of Tacoma man imprisoned in Nicaragua

More than 80,000 people have joined a campaign to call for
the release of Jason Puracal, a Tacoma-native and American
citizen who claims he is wrongly imprisoned in Nicaragua.

Puracal was convicted of drug trafficking and money
laundering charges last year, and was subsequently
sentenced to 22 years at La Modelo Prison, a maximum
security detention center outside of Nicaragua’s capital
city of Managua. During an interview with 97.3 KIRO FM in
August, Puracal denied the charges.

“Anybody who’s ever met me will tell you what kind of
person I am and will tell you that it’s not in my nature,
I wouldn’t be involved with any of the things that I’m
accused of,” Puracal said. “It’s like something out of a
movie.”

The Change.org petition was launched by former DEA
Director Tom Cash and Eric Volz, who was convicted of
murder in Nicaragua but later released. Volz now heads The
David House Agency, an “international crisis resource
organization that provides services to Americans facing
complex legal and political situations abroad.”

The online campaign to free Puracal has
garnered support from several members of Congress, the
California Innocence Project, and a former FBI agent. They
have demanded that the U.S. State Department intervene in
the case on Puracal’s behalf.

“I know what it’s like to be wrongfully convicted in
Nicaragua and I know what it’s going to take to get Jason
freed,” Volz said in a statement. “Jason is literally
fighting for his life in one of the world’s most dangerous
prisons. His life is in jeopardy every day that the U.S.
government doesn’t intervene in this egregious violation
of human rights.”

“We need the support of the American people, and by
extension, the U.S. State Department,” he said.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention has been asked to determine if Puracal’s Aug.
29, 2011 conviction violated international law.

International human rights Attorney Jared Genser, with
Washington, D.C.-based Perseus Strategies, along with
Puracal’s family, have asked the United Nations to take
“urgent action” in the case, citing “physical abuse and
the denial of food, water and proper medical care” inside
the prison.

Puracal’s family has also filed a submission to the United
Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman,
and Degrading Treatment.

Puracal, 34, was arrested at his home in San Juan del Sur,
Nicaragua on Nov. 11, 2010. The Nicaraguan National Police
claim he was part of a drug trafficking ring, and
laundered money through his Re/Max real estate franchise.
The University of Washington graduate moved to Central
America after joining the Peace Corps in 2002.

His case has been accepted for appeal by a three judge
appellate panel in Granada, Nicaragua.