Public employees and the militancy of the ruling Sandinista Front also identify themselves as victims of the kidnapping of public liberties in Nicaragua, ordered by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, according to the testimony of several state workers who denounce the increase in extreme and permanent surveillance. in charge of the operators of the dictatorship.
“In Nicaragua there are no freedoms for anyone,” laments “Karla”, an employee in a state institution that reflects on human rights violations in the country. “We have a muzzle, there is a lot of fear (because) nobody wants to go to jail or be fired,” adds “Lucía”, a worker at the Nicaraguan Institute of Social Security (INSS).
“María”, an employee in the Judiciary, comments with shock that there are colleagues who “can’t take it anymore and are leaving”, even from the country, leaving their positions without a formal resignation and losing their social benefits for fear that their dissidence or any claim is punished with siege against them or their relatives, or jail.
This September 28 marks four years since the imposition of the de facto police state, when the Ortega regime banned civic protests, declared calls illegal and threatened those who did so with jail. Today, the prohibition of freedoms has already reached the militancy of the Sandinista Front and state workers, who feel they have no right to dissent from the orders of Ortega and Murillo, under penalty of imprisonment and siege.
At least 21 Sandinista militants in the municipality of JalapaNueva Segovia, have been detained since mid-September for expressing their disagreement with the imposition of the candidate for mayor of that city, at a time when the FSLN is recycling more than a hundred of its eternal mayors.
Also since May, Ortega militant Marlon Gerardo Sáenz Cruz, known as “Chinese Enoch”a “historic Sandinista” who acted as a paramilitary in the official repression against the April Rebellion in 2018, but “fell from grace” when criticized Murillo’s control in the FSLN by an order that annulled all the organizations of this faction of the government party, which includes war survivors and mothers of heroes and martyrs of the fight against the Somocista dictatorship.
“They leave the country without giving up, because of fear”
“Karla” agreed to speak with CONFIDENTIAL under condition of anonymity. He asks that he not be identified by his real name or mention the public entity for which he works. He hopes to avoid their dismissal or partisan reprisals, because he assures that questioning a decision of the Sandinista Front – even for their militancy – exposes them to unemployment and even jail.
“In the country there are no freedoms for anyone,” she claims, and assures that public employees like her can only “put up with and shut up so many injustices”, such as the dismissal of colleagues “only for the fact of expressing themselves or thinking differently”, criticism.
Silence, justifies “Karla”, is mandatory. She states that she has no other employment opportunities to leave her position and her income is the support of her family. “Human talent is no longer valued, but political work… that’s what matters to them,” she says, disappointed.
He describes that the repression has escalated so much among state workers and the Sandinista militancy itself that there are those who have left without formally resigning or awaiting their liquidation. “People no longer come to work, they leave the country without resigning out of fear, because you don’t know what can happen to you,” he says.
“We have a muzzle… nobody wants to go to jail”
“Carmen” also works for the State and feels that the only options public employees have is to “shut up and obey”, because for them –as for the rest of Nicaraguans with their civil and political rights violated– “there are zero freedoms” .
“Here we are, so to speak, like Daniel Ortega is the owner of the country and the father of all Nicaraguans that no one can speak or omit a different opinion than the one he or his wife wants, because if you don’t receive a punishment, which in this case is jail”, he denounces.
“Lucía”, who works at the INSS, does not receive freedoms of any kind either.
“We have a muzzle, there is a lot of fear… nobody wants to go to jail or be fired from their job,” he says.
For public employees like “Lucía”, who are the economic breadwinner of her household, the lack of other employment options forces them to remain silent. “The situation is tough, there are no jobs and the one we have we must take care of,” he argues.
“Karla”, “Carmen” and “Lucía” separately describe how they are forced to participate in marches, caravans and visits to the neighborhoods of the 153 municipalities. These are orders from Rosario Murillo to promote party propaganda in favor of the Sandinista Front, which intends to maintain control of most of the mayor’s offices. “There is a lot of absence of staff on house-to-house visits,” “Karla” details. But there are still political operators who are responsible for compliance with the “quotas” among all workers.
The orders of the dictatorship also include surveillance and siege against opponents and citizens whom Ortega has as the object of surveillance and political persecution.
The flight of state workers
“María” works in the Judiciary and confirms that Ortega judges and magistrates do not have permission to leave Nicaragua. They must “feel cornered from not having freedom,” she says.
However, it also details that it is the magistrates themselves who are in charge of telling their co-workers that they have to go march and “make a face that they are happy to be there.”
In addition, they are forced to take party training courses every Saturday, which public employees consider “brainwashing.” It is a political indoctrination to justify their “absurd” policies, criticizes “María”, who regrets that the right to protest does not exist. “It’s risking being fired or something else,” she warns.
For “Maria” the departure of public employees and FSLN militants, without even formally resigning, shows that they themselves “can’t stand it and are leaving.”
The work environment is not trustworthy, he warns. What is said is done with tweezers and not before anyone. “Carmen” assures that she maintains communication with colleagues with whom she shares information about political prisoners, disagreements within the same institution and the imposition of candidates for mayor from the Sandinista Front and other sensitive issues.
“You have to know first who is on the good side and who is not,” he says. “You can’t with everyone because there is no 100% trust.”
The “hidden” migration of state collaborators has been verified by organizations such as Urnas Abiertas, who have mentioned cases in which the FSLN militancy itself denounces the great fear that exists within the State.
The de facto police state
On September 28, 2018, the Ortega Police criminalized civic protests, five days after the 16-year-old teenager, Matt Andrés Romero, became one of the more than 325 fatalities of the Ortega repression in the context of the Rebellion. Civic, according to data recorded by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
With this provision, Ortega began a repressive escalation focused on annulling the constitutional rights of Nicaraguans and imposing a state of terror executed by the Police.
Opposition groups and self-convened citizens challenged the imposition of the police state and organized several sit-ins. The last one, on October 14 of that year, was violently dismantled by the Police, who imprisoned 38 protesters for a few hours, including Suyen Barahona, Tamara Dávila, Ana Margarita Vigil and José Antonio Peraza, today part of the Political prisoners of the Ortega regime for almost a year and a half in El Chipote, where they have lost weight, are emaciated by the lack of sun and physical and psychological torture, which would leave them with consequences for life.
The repressive escalation continued to curtail any attempt at protest. Four years after the de facto police state, the regime even criminalizes the act of waving a national flag.
Ivania Álvarez, former member of the Political Council of the Blue and White National Unity (UNAB) and member of Urnas Abiertas, assures that Ortega’s repression has turned against the FSLN’s own followers.
“I think that here it is already quite clear – he values – that the closure of the spaces for protests and denunciations is not only for the opposition or for the blue and white, it is for everyone and that includes the militancy of the Sandinista Front.”
