Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua

There is much pain in Volz's memoir of being a young American in a near-perfect frameup involving murder, tabloid headlines, police corruption, and political power plays in Nicaragua. In 2005, the author, then in his early 20s, established a bilingual magazine with a friend, settled in a small Nicaraguan town, and fell in love with the beautiful Doris Jiménez. Eventually, Volz moved to Managua, but remained close friends with Doris. So he was stunned in late 2006 to receive a call informing him that she was dead and even more stunned to find himself charged and harshly sentenced for her murder after a trial he describes as involving tampered evidence, coerced testimony, police incompetence, and betrayals. The vignettes of the prisons and cold-blooded inmates are scalding. After a bold campaign by his family and friends to put pressure on his captors, Volz was released and deported in December 2007. Volz describes a web of sinister international political acts involving even Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega, whom he calls corrupt and duplicitous in this tale of everything that can go south for an American facing uncertain justice abroad. 8 pages of b&w photos. (May)