Twenty-four years have passed since Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo denounced Daniel Ortega, his stepfather and current president of Nicaragua, for alleged sexual abuse.
In 1998, Ortega Murillo, daughter of the current vice president Rosario Murillo, wife of Daniel Ortega, accused her stepfather of rape and sexual abuse, in a trial that did not prosper but meant a family breakup.
In conversation with veitherz from america In Costa Rica, where she lives in exile, Ortega Murillo, 54, said that the demonstrations in Nicaragua against the Ortega government and its repressive response have once again reminded her of her own experience.
“Perhaps I was the first crime that they dared to publicly deny, as the current ones deny. If they can take revenge and hurt me, they do it, as they do with those who oppose them in Nicaragua,” he said. “Only that for me it represents a double wound because apart from coming from political power, it also comes from those who were supposed to be your family,” he added.
“If they can take revenge and harm me, they do it, as they do with those who oppose them in Nicaragua.”
The complaint changed everything for Ortega Murillo, including her future, which she began to build from scratch as an exile in Costa Rica. “The last name is worth nothing here,” she said.
From taking a bus and adjusting to a limited financial budget, to attending a demonstration against the excesses of his family, he does it normally, without pomp, or guards. He says it’s like being born again.
“The day I left those walls was like starting to walk, learning to walk, to see absolutely everything differently, I had to learn to know what love is, because in that world of violence, authority defines the course of a family, and not necessarily affection,” he added.
In the walls of the presidential house in El Carmen, in Managua, according to the eldest daughter of Vice President Murillo, they live under denialism and in a kind of prison.
“The secrets, the lies, the masks, justified by the revolution, are a first condition of that world,” he said.
“You can already imagine that protecting secrets becomes a prison for everyone who is inside,” he said.
Ortega Murillo says that she prefers to enjoy her freedom in Costa Rica, where she works in multiple jobs, including teaching, which is one of the things she is most passionate about, she said.
It also supports groups of Nicaraguans and provides consultancies. “Like any migrant, it involves assuming triple routines” of work, he said. “I teach and work more than 40 hours a week, I give tutorials, I work giving advice for other educational projects, in short, things that I never imagined living”.
Ortega Murillo classifies the political panorama in his country as a “debacle”, led by his stepfather, President Daniel Ortega, and his mother, Vice President Rosario Murillo, and evaluates the role of his brothers, who are increasingly more public in activities of the State.
Several high-ranking officials have recently resigned in Nicaragua, such as the former magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice, Rafael Solísbest man at the wedding of the ruling couple who accused the government of setting the country back through repression.
“To the extent that they can no longer trust anyone, [Daniel Ortega y Rosario Murillo] They need to make my brothers their closest allies, and more than allies, obedient to their needs, personal logistics,” he assured.
Daniel Ortega spoke of his stepdaughter’s case when he had not yet come to power, in 1998, interviewed by the journalist Lucía Pineda Ubau, and classified it as “totally false.”
“The accusations that [Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo] has been throwing out lies,” Ortega told Ubau.
In 2019, one of Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo’s brothers, Juan Carlos Ortega, called her a “mythomaniac” on Twitter, when he recalled what he experienced.
In Costa Rica, far from her native Nicaragua, the daughter of the presidential couple, like many of her compatriots in exile, says she has a dream to fulfill.
“I hope to return to Nicaragua one day and be able to share what I learned in Costa Rica. I don’t see myself as a politician. I love teaching, giving classes and I hope to dedicate myself to that in my country,” he concluded.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, in Costa Rica there are more than 100,000 Nicaraguans in exile who have fled repression in their country.
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