A country turned into a prison for freedom of expression, in which the targets are journalists, writers and their best tool: the word. That was the portrait of the 2021 situation that he presented this Thursday, January 13 Southern voices, a group of 12 civil society organizations in South America that defend press freedom, and that assured Nicaraguans “that they are not alone.”
The report, presented by Guillermo Medrano, a researcher for that organization, reveals that they documented 702 incidents against journalism, almost double the previous year (360) and a little less than those of 2018, when the situation of rights violations, committed by Daniel Ortega’s regime intensified.
The 2021 document can be read at the edigital edition of the newspaper La Prensa, a local partner of Voces del Sur since the closure of the Violeta Barrios Chamorro Foundation since last year.
According to statistics, of those 702 incidents, 171 were directed at people and 50 at independent media. The review of the violations goes from the consummation of the confiscation of independent media facilities such as CONFIDENTIAL and 100% Noticias, as well as the anguishing assaults on journalists at the doors of their homes in the forgotten Nicaraguan Caribbean, such as the case of Kalúa Salazar, a journalist from La Costeñísima radio station.
Last May, the repressive escalation of the dictatorship against its critics began with the occupation of the provisional offices of CONFIDENTIAL in Managua, the second since the confiscation of the facilities in 2018 that this year were converted into a medical care center with which the State tried to justify the dispossession.
Instead, it is taken over by agents of the State of the offices from the newspaper La Prensa, the dean of national journalism with its 95-year history and the imprisonment of its manager, under false accusations of money laundering, as well as the judicial harassment of the members of the former Violeta Barrios Foundation were other notable events. The morning’s intervention made Nicaragua the only country in the region that does not have a newspaper that circulates in print.
The retention of passports to journalists who tried to make trips abroad and a series of intimidating acts that caused 52 communicators to go into exile to protect their identity, close a year of such a setback in terms of freedoms that places Nicaragua as one of the most serious situations in the world. continent.
In the event, which was also broadcast live by a network of local media such as Despacho 505, IPNicaragua, La Lupa, 100% Noticias and article 66. “Despite the adversities and the hostile environment, the independent press reaffirmed its commitment to the truth, “Medrano said.
Stigmatizing speech
The expert highlighted the stigmatizing discourse, promoted from the top of power, which led to even journalists being victims of a campaign on the subject of vaccination, when the ruling party exposed them in propaganda notes as opponents receiving the first dose of the vaccine managed by the “good government of Nicaragua”, referring to the dictatorship, a contradiction with reality because it is about a citizen’s right.
The activity was attended by the poet Gioconda Belli, one of the most renowned intellectuals in Nicaragua, and the journalist Octavio Enríquez, from the team of CONFIDENTIAL and member of the Latin American network of investigative journalism Connectas. The program was hosted by Dagmar Thiel from FundaMedios in the United States and Claudia Cadenas from Voces del Sur.
Enriquez, who confirmed his exiled last august, offered an overview of freedom of expression under a dictatorship, and recalled the legacy of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, a hero of public liberties assassinated 44 years ago by the Somoza dictatorship, a commitment to freedom that should inspire this generation that it was time to report on these serious human rights violations.
“The situation of the union cannot be dissociated from what happens with the population. As witnesses, telling the facts represents a major risk, investigating and opening a public debate becomes an offense for regimes that are intolerant of criticism, ”said Enríquez, who made a call to continue working and make journalistic alliances that make it possible to circumvent censorship .
The session ended with the poet Belli, who has a work translated into more than twenty languages and who has won multiple international awards, including Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, recalled that the Ortega regime this year tried to silence journalists and writers and put on the table the repression directed through the Foreign Agents Law that caused the closure of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation and the PEN chapter of Nicaragua of which she was president.
The regime’s persecution led to the imprisonment of Cristiana Chamorro Barrios, its president, whom the dictatorship keeps under a house-for-jail regime, and to the arbitrary detention of the workers of the same organization, Marcos Antonio Fletes and Walter Gómez. Added to the threat to other workers such as Lourdes Arróliga, along with renowned journalists such as María Lilly Delgado.
The judicial process against the members of the FVBCh, in which the State accused its directors for the alleged crime of money laundering, under the false hypothesis that funds were channeled to overthrow Ortega in 2018, caused them to be summoned to the 158 people, of which 52 were journalists. In some cases, the sessions became direct threats that sought to restrict freedom of expression, using the method of terror.
Ortega, and the State under his service, uphold the thesis that the peaceful protests of 2018, which were cruelly repressed by the regime, were an attempt to overthrow it, something that has been firmly denied by the families of the victims, organizations rights, journalists and the international community.
Belli recalled the cases of Sergio Ramirez, 2018 Cervantes Prize winner, also threatened with arrest and whose latest novel “Tongolele did not know how to dance” it was kidnapped by the General Customs Directorate to prevent it from being distributed in Nicaragua, and its own case to emphasize that the persecution has also been carried out against those who use the word in the artistic sphere.
“It is very typical of dictatorships to try to crush the word,” said Belli, who read two poems (“Despatriado “ Y Lullaby for a Country loose in tears) and said, by way of longing, that he wants a Nicaragua “where you can close your eyes and sleep peacefully at night,” where there is no danger of breaking the doors.
Another equally bleak report
For its part, the Nicaragua Human Rights Collective Never Again reported in a report that the total number of journalists who have gone into exile since 2018 totals at least 120 journalists.
“To date there are more than 120 Nicaraguan journalists requesting refuge in Costa Rica, the United States, Spain and other destinations. The number continues to rise, ”said the human rights body.
The situation of journalists adds to the adverse context reported by both Voces del Sur and the Collective, in which it is confirmed that the authorities are keeping the newsrooms of the television channel 100% Noticias, the digital newspaper Confidencial and the newspaper La Prensa busy.
In addition, since April 2018, state authorities have closed more than 20 local media outlets and are currently exerting economic pressure against television channels 10 and 12 and the radio station Radio Corporación. (Report with information from EFE)
