Nicaragua sentences former official to 13 years in prison

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaraguan judges have sentenced a former high-level Sandinista official to 13 years in prison for “conspiracy to undermine national integrity.”  Victor Hugo Tinoco is one of dozens of opposition leaders arrested by President Daniel Ortega last year to clear the way for his re-election virtually unopposed. Tinoco was deputy foreign affairs minister during the first Sandinista government in 1979 but later split with Ortega. The nongovernmental Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights said Monday that Tinoco, 69, was ordered to serve 13 years in prison, even though some of the older victims of the crackdown have been given a form of house arrest.