Some of the political prisoners exiled by Daniel Ortega on February 11, 2023 in Washington (USA). Miguel Andres
The systematic persecution with which the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo responds to those who oppose their government in Nicaragua reached a new high on February 9 and 15 when they decided to grant citizenship to more than 300 citizens of the country to withdraw. Among them were journalists, activists and writers of recognized renown, such as Gioconda Belli and Sergio Ramírez. The action has provoked the outrage of numerous figures around the world, who have come together to publish a manifesto entitled “You are and will be Nicaraguans”. Among the 466 signatories of the letter are names such as the Nobel Prize winners in literature Mario Vargas Llosa and Orhan Pamuk or the former presidents of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solís (2014-2018) and Carlos Alvarado Quesada (2018-2022). ), among other things.
“These facts violate the basic human right to a nationality and the prohibition on arbitrarily depriving a person of it, as enshrined in Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 20 of the American Convention on Human Rights. People.” they denounce in the letter, which they open by expressing their “concern at recent actions” by the Central American country’s executive branch.
In publishing just three paragraphs, they compile a history of events that served as the breeding ground for this week’s outbreak. “In recent years, at least eighteen universities have been arbitrarily disbanded as a form of control in the face of the 2018 student rebellion that left 328 dead, nearly 2,000 injured and hundreds detained,” they begin by listing. This event is followed by the suspension of “the legal status of more than 3,000 organizations defending human rights” and the closure of 26 media outlets. “As if that weren’t enough,” they point out indignantly, “access to international human rights organizations has been banned since 2018, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.”
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The list of signatories is long and includes numerous journalists such as Leila Guerriero from Argentina or Carmen Aristegui from Mexico; and writers like the Spanish-speaking Elena Poniatowska and Luis García Montero or the Americans Salman Rushdie, Siri Hustvedt and Paul Auster. In addition, the letter is signed by prominent photographer Susan Maiselas, who portrayed episodes of the Sandinista Revolution; Panamanian singer-songwriter Rubén Blades; and Suzanne Nosse, director of Pen America.
After exposing the facts and denouncing the document, the document ends with a petition: “We call on the international community to speak out and take an active role in all measures that can lead to an end to human rights abuses and violations.” Ortega -Murillo regime. We also call on the Nicaraguan government to end the repression against their people.”
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