The Nicaraguan journalist Julio López carried out community and environmental journalism in the media Local Wave, pioneer in environmental and community issues that emerged in 2000 and has won multiple national and international awards.
But because of his work he fell under the spotlight of Daniel Ortega’s government. He was summoned to the prosecutor’s office on two occasions, accused by the government along with more than 30 journalists of alleged money laundering, and had to leave his country into exile in 2021 to protect his safety.
The last field coverage he carried out in Nicaragua was work in alliance with the CONNECTAS journalism platform on health infrastructure. He visited several communities on the Northern Caribbean Coast and confirmed that the “best hospital network in Central America,” as the official propaganda in Nicaragua says, “continued to cause inequalities.”
“The most important hospital centers are located in urban areas, and even the regional hospital being built in Bilwi is still far from remote communities,” he said. People have difficulty moving to Bilwi due to the distance and lack of road infrastructure and public transportation, she added.
Bilwi, or Puerto Cabezas, is a head municipality of the Autonomous Region of the North Caribbean Coast, about 500 kilometers from Managua. Due to its distance, journalists have rarely been able to travel to that place, but Julio López says that this was his greatest motivation.
López has been awarded the Pedro Joaquín Chamorro national journalism award three times and was co-winner of the award for the best Latin American story on climate change adaptation from Latinclima for a reportage on how nature reserves contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change.
Cristopher Mendoza Jirón is another of the journalists of Local Wave, has worked in this medium since 2007, when he was still at university. “At some point I had heard of Local Wave and at that time I was already interested in everything that was radio programming and production,” Mendoza told the VOA.
According to Mendoza, “the environmental issue is very surrounded by interests, with advertisers, with companies, and it was where we specialized,” he added.
Local Wave He began producing radio works in chronicle format, and had an audience accepted by various stations that broadcast the programs. For years they went out Radio La Primerísimawith national reach, and joined radio networks on special occasions, but everything changed in 2017, when The First He suspended it.
“We had to stay digital,” said López.
The First broadcasts content related to the ruling party in Nicaragua, so the Local Wave It was annoying, the reporters said.
The outlook for Local Wave It worsened in 2018, when protests against President Daniel Ortega began over social security reforms. These demonstrations were preceded by others related to the burning of the Indio Maíz natural reserve.
Local Waveas a pioneer media in environmental issues, covered the burning of the reserve, which is why they consider that they were put in the eye of the government.
“Time proved us right. That entire situation of civic struggle in 2018 arose from the Indio Maíz fire,” an environmental issue that generated great impact, recalls Mendoza.
The Nicaraguan government has said in international forums that the allegations are false.
“Nicaragua was the first country to subscribe to the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth and Humanity, being also consistent with the recognition of the property rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant Communities,” said the Nicaraguan government at the beginning of March of this year. year, after the Green Climate Fund secretariat cancel the Bioclima program, that would serve indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.
Exile of environmental and community journalism
Local Wave It left Nicaragua in the context of the political crisis of 2018. Two of its journalists, Julio López and Cristopher Mendoza, were summoned to the prosecutor’s office under accusations that were indicated as “spurious” by organizations that defend freedom of the press.
López had her passport confiscated when she was trying to reach Costa Rica at the Peñas Blancas land border.
López said that environmental journalism caused discomfort because “the government has interests” in the exploitation of large volumes of natural resources, including indiscriminate logging, mining and livestock farming.
The work of Local Wave has documented this problem and the null state policies to stop mining, logging or eventhe invasion of settlers to indigenous areas.
“More than 76 indigenous people have been murdered in the last 10 years by settlers,” López said. “This type of coverage related to deforestation or the invasion of settlers caused the Onda Local team to go into exile in 2021.”
Both López and Mendoza and part of the team Local Wave who is anonymous for security reasons, long to return to Nicaragua to continue working on community and environmental issues, and they assure that even outside the country that has not stopped them from doing journalism.
“I got to know so much about the people that I fell more and more in love with their stories, their legends, their occurrences, nicknames, their phrases. Our country is very rich culturally and is fascinating. The people also have a historical-cultural background that is only needed be polished,” Mendoza said. “I hope to return to my country one day and see that people have greater opportunities for development, which I believe is what Nicaragua needs,” she concluded.
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