On November 11, the musicians Nieves Martínez, Dagoberto Fuentes Palacios, and Juan Pablo Rosales They have joined the long list of artists and cultural workers, victims of harassment, threats, arbitrary detention, inhuman and degrading treatment, and forced exile by the government of Ortega and Murillo.
In his last report Echoes of freedom: art as a voice of resistance in Nicaraguaa, the NGOs defending freedom of artistic expression, AFI and CADAL, denounce the practices of transnational repression that the regime uses to silencing Nicaraguan culture beyond the borders.
A tactic that shows repressive intent has been the attempt to censor Nicaraguan artists living in exile.
In August 2022, the Nicaraguan Embassy in Spain prohibited the participation of the multi-award-winning poet and writer Gioconda Belli in the second edition of the Spanish art festival Celebremos Iberoamérica after insisting that she “does not represent the Nicaraguan people.” The writer had already been stripped of her nationality by the government and forced to live in exile, for the second time in her life.
Threats against family members who remain in Nicaragua is another way of repressing the voices of exiles. Most of the testimonies for Echoes of freedom They were shared under strict conditions of anonymity due to fear of reprisals against family members, which can include threats, arbitrary detention, stripping of nationality, and expropriation of property.
The security forces, parastatal groups, immigration officials, the judiciary and civil networks and organizations are part of this repressive framework.such as the Sandinista Leadership Committees, the Sandinista Youth.
In the report, the former program director of PEN Nicaragua, Andrea del Carmenexplains how the authorities used his son’s imprisonment, Gabriel Alfonso Lopez to force his return.
On September 14, 2022, López was imprisoned and charged with “undermining national integrity.” After the arrest, police took his cell phone to send messages to Del Carmen in an attempt to get him to turn himself in. Police then transferred López to a maximum security prison, where he was denied access to a lawyer.
When his relatives approached the prison for information about the arrest, the police made it clear that he was being held as a political prisoner and would only be released if Del Carmen returned to Nicaragua.
Finally, on February 9, 2023, López was released along with other political prisoners and forcibly transferred to the United States, without being able to say goodbye to his wife and children. A few months later, Del Carmen was able to meet him again.
The use of transnational repression is not new in the region. In the 1970s, Latin American dictatorships carried out repressive actions beyond national borders with the connivance of dictatorial regimes.
Currently, Cuba and Venezuela also share similar practices and in some cases there is evidence of their collusion. Transnational repression seeks to silence voices inside and outside Nicaragua, as well as dismantle Nicaraguan civil society that has been rebuilt abroad with enormous resilience.
What’s more: the persecution of exiled artists and workers demonstrates, once again, the contempt of the Ortega and Murillo government for the culture, traditions, talents and art of Nicaragua.
