Nicaraguan journalist David Mendoza reported this Friday that he has gone into exile after the Government of Daniel Ortega, through the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Post Office (Telcor), ordered the local channel RB 3 “El Canal de la Zona Láctea” to be taken off the airof your property.
Mendoza left Nicaragua irregularly and crossed the waters of the Rio Grande border —Río Bravo in Mexico— together with his wife and minor son until he reached the United States, where he turned himself in to the immigration authorities, according to a video he shared on their social networks.
“After more than a week of fighting, we have crossed the Rio Grande and we are now on North American land,” said the journalist, who thanked God.
According to Mendoza, it has been hard to leave part of his family and friends in the Nicaraguan city of Río Blanco, in the north of the country, where he is originally from and where his television channel operated.
“I never thought that local and national government officials would destroy the dream that I built with so much sacrifice,” he said.
He stressed that he left Nicaragua to “protect his life and integrity,” as he feared that after the closure of his channel the regime would decide to imprison him. “I had no choice. I had to leave my country, my people, because it is already known that what followed after what the Government did”.
“One day we will return (to Nicaragua) to do what he always did for the most needy, together with good-hearted people,” he added.
The journalist turned himself in to US authorities last Tuesday and was released on Thursday and is now headed to Miami, where relatives are waiting for him, he said.
18 years of work
On August 2, the Nicaraguan government closed its private television channel alleging that “the local channel RB 3, which was broadcast on channel 15 of the programming grid” of the subscription company Cablevisión Río Blanco, “does not have with authorization from this Regulatory Entity to operate as a local content channel”.
“By virtue of the foregoing, I request that, once this communication is received, said Channel (RB 3) be removed from the grid of channels authorized by Telcor from your company Cablevisión”, ordered the deputy general director of Telcor, Celina Delgado Castellón , in a letter sent to the management of the company Cablevisión Río Blanco. The regulatory body is headed by Nahima Díaz Flores, daughter of Police Chief Francisco Díaz, Daniel Ortega’s in-law.
The local channel RB 3 has been operating for 18 years in the municipality of Río Blanco, in northern Nicaragua.
Mendoza announced in tears to his audience the closure of his media outlet after receiving the notification from Telcor.
Mendoza’s work in Río Blanco was characterized by transmitting, through RB 3, the local problems that afflict the area and managing, with the residents and businessmen themselves, support for those who need it most.
The communicator told 100% Noticias that before the closure of his outlet, other colleagues from Matagalpa recommended that he “ally with the Sandinistas,” to which he replied that he did not have to ally with any party and that his job is “with the people”.
According to the Nicaraguan Independent Journalists and Communicators movement (PCIN), some 150 journalists, including the editorial staff of La Prensa, have opted for exile since the beginning of the crisis that broke out in April 2018 due to controversial security reforms. social, which later became a demand for Ortega’s resignation because he responded with force.
