Gringo Nightmare

While channel surfing today I got stuck on an "Imprisoned Abroad" program and couldn't stop watching. The story was about Eric Volz, a 20 something Californian who had moved down to San Jaun Del Sur, Nicaragua to start a bilingual publication. He spoke fluent spanish and began dating a gorgeous local girl and they had a relationship that the locals detested. He received a lot of hate mail and she was threatened several times as well by locals. Anyways, he ends up moving to Managua, they break up, she calls him one night sounding really stressed and tells him they can never see each other again. The next day her body is found in San Juan Del Sur in her clothing story in the middle of town.

Eric gets blamed for it despite overwhelming evidence in favor of his innocence (cell phone call from Managua, car rental slip in Managua which is over 2 hours away, proof of a business phone conference at the time of her murder, etc). He ends up spending nearly a year in an infamous jail in Managua that houses violent criminals under the worst conditions.

It took interference from an ex CIA official in his case to get him released eventually and acquitted of charges.

I found this story incredible and scary at the same time. Traveling the world you always see how harsh living situations are for some people and how corrupt governments and police are but this is all so insane to me. I used to love the movie Brokedown Palace and if youve ever seen it, this story is so similar! Eric has a book about the details that I would love to read. When I do, ill write.
Doing some research I came across a couple really interesting link...

http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/home/?currentPage=2
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/22589336

After reading all of this I came across a post regarding Erics anger at the US for supporting Nicaragua by filming this seasons SURVIVOR not only IN nicaragua, but in san juan del sur...the same city Eric was arrested in.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-volz/why-did-jeff-probst-of-su_b_716568.html

Now there have been serious accusations against the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, in regards to his human rights violations and his intense anti-american sentiment. Ortega was in power in the 80s and came back into power a few years ago.

In doing this research I also learned about another similar case happening in Iran currently. Three hikers wandered across the border and were arrested for illegal entry and espionage. One has been released and two remain in jail. They have been there for over 500 days.

http://freethehikers.org/