The Nicaraguan political activist and opposition leader Lesther German attended the World Democracy Summit 2024, held in Geneva, Switzerland. During his intervention, the young man reminded the dictator Daniel Ortega of the forceful words that he said to him exactly six years ago during the first attempt at National Dialogue: «He is a murderer. Give up!
«On May 16, 2018, a dialogue table was set up in Managua between sectors of the opposition and the regime. Ortega was about to speak when I faced him directly, less than two meters away. Not with violence, but with the strength of my voice,” said the president and founder of the Nicaraguan University Alliance (AUN).
Alemán confessed before the international community that he did not “know what words to use when rebuking him, but he knew that he had to confront him with the truth, the dictator who condemned us as a nation.” In an impulse of courage, the opponent, then 20 years old, confronted Ortega and told him that “This is not a dialogue table, but a table to negotiate his exit.”
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Although his speech is still remembered by the Nicaraguan people, the political leader admitted that those four minutes that his speech lasted “changed his life.” «I do not regret the costs: an exile to the United States, money was offered for my head, constant persecution, imprisonment for more than 20 months, a 15-year prison sentence, the stripping of my nationality and the elimination of all my records officials,” he denounced.
From his own experience and that of hundreds of opponents who have been victims of the regime’s repression, Alemán described his homeland as “a nation where thinking differently and demanding your rights costs: death, prison or exile” and “a country with more of 6.2 million inhabitants immersed in poverty and tied to the absolute control of Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
«In Nicaragua, being young, being a student, being a farmer, being an opponent, being indigenous and Afro-descendant is a crime and means death. After his return to power in 2006 until today, Ortega violated the institutions, incipient democracy and national sovereignty,” said the political express.
Call to the international community
In addition to providing his testimony, the president of AUN also emphasized the crimes against humanity that the Ortega dictatorship has committed since the sociopolitical crisis of 2018. “There are currently 121 Nicaraguans imprisoned as prisoners of conscience in the ‘La Modelo’ and ‘La Modelo’ prisons. La Esperanza’, without ignoring the million Nicaraguans forced into exile without the right to a homeland.
Alemán addressed the current political prisoners and reminded them that “they are not alone” in their fight to survive the torture and ill-treatment carried out by the repressive agents of the Ortega regime. «Henry, you’re not alone. Jasonyou’re not alone. Adelayou are not alone, Olesiayou are not alone. Elysium, you’re not alone. “To the political prisoners, you are not alone,” he said.
The political activist warned that the Nicaraguan dictatorship exercises “a North Korean model, a tropicalized Taliban, which without paying international costs relies on the passivity of multilateral organizations, while making Nicaragua a space of generalized impunity because it maintains a regime of transnational persecution.”
For these reasons, Alemán urged the international community that “they cannot take their eyes off Nicaragua, they must not provide financing to repress, imprison and exile nationals, or they must close the doors to thousands of Nicaraguans who request asylum in Europe, the United States and other receiving countries.
«It is time to act: the regime must be financially isolated. Accompany and support the opposition, inside and outside Nicaragua, in their fight for their freedom. Demand the prompt release of political prisoners who constantly suffer torture. As well as the safe return of forced exile,” demanded the opposition leader.
Likewise, the young leader reiterated that “the international community must stop being timid; “We expect more from the United Nations, the European Union and every country that defends rights, not only their statements, but their actions.”
Ortega will not be able to silence him
Graduated with a degree in Communication from the confiscated Central American University (UCA), Alemán affirms that being a political activist is only his “vocation.” After actively denouncing the complaints of the Ortega regime, the Police accused him of being a “traitor to the country” and captured him on July 5, 2021.
He was later taken to the Judicial Assistance Directorate, known as “El Chipote”, where he was subjected to brutal interrogations, inhuman conditions and cruel treatment. He was released and exiled to the United States on February 9, 2023, along with 221 political prisoners.
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Alemán affirms that “my last memory of that Nicaragua, which today we still build from outside its borders, was kissing its soil, the one where I was born and I promised that I will return. Because I am convinced that, Although Ortega has done everything possible to silence me, he will not be able to eliminate the strength of an entire people who decided to change their history.
