Nicaraguan muralist Vink Laguna feels “embraced” by Guatemala, the country that welcomed him after being released from prison by the government of Daniel Ortega, but he has a “bittersweet” feeling at becoming an exile.
On Thursday, Ortega released 135 political prisoners, including Laguna, for “humanitarian reasons,” who were transferred to Guatemala thanks to the mediation of the United States.
Related news: Released Nicaraguan muralist feels “embraced” by Guatemala
The 28-year-old artist told AFP that he was arrested in the northern city of Estelí on November 22, 2023 while painting a mural of the winner of the Miss Universe pageant, Nicaraguan Sheynnis Palacios.
Palacios’ victory sparked the largest street protests in Nicaragua since the 2018 protests in which she participated and which shook the Sandinista government. Ortega’s wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, accused the opposition of trying to take political advantage of Palacios’ victory in the beauty pageant.
He says he was arrested during the celebration for Palacios’ coronation, because he was carrying a Nicaraguan flag, an “anti-government” symbol for Ortega, with the shield as a head and the phrase «No more dictatorships».
Miss Universe 2023, Sheynnis Palacios, arrived in Costa Rica for the second time to participate in the Miss Universe Costa Rica 2024 coronation gala that will take place on September 10 at the International Convention Center.
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Palacios will crown the new representative of Costa Rican beauty, who will represent the country in the Miss Universe pageant, which will take place on November 16 in Mexico.
Miss Universe co-owner Raúl Rocha Cantú said that Palacios will visit Nicaragua before handing over the crown. “Without a doubt, it is part of the entire agenda that he has to be able to be in Nicaragua and share with the Nicaraguans,” he said.
Since 2023, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has turned Nicaragua into a country that carries out mass exiles of its citizens
The rulers, considered dictators for their abuses and their permanence in power with the use of police and paramilitary weapons, have perfected a repressive machinery that persecutes, kidnaps, tortures and expels its citizens, with the indifference of an international community that does not go beyond “lukewarm” statements of criticism and condemnation.
What began as a campaign to silence dissent has evolved into a state policy, described by local and foreign human rights organizations as a crime against humanity, which has left thousands of Nicaraguans without a homeland or civil rights and, worst of all, sent to survive abroad, far from their families.
“These are serious actions, these people are in an extremely vulnerable situation,” says Carolina Jiménez of the Washington Office on Latin America, WOLA. For the activist, the international community should give the regime a response that stops this type of aggression against human rights.
