The government led by President Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo has set its sights on the musicians, one of the last links of criticism left standing in Nicaragua, where students, intellectuals and opponents have been detained since 2018.
This week several of them were arrested in Nicaragua without any judicial order that is known to date. Although the authorities have not provided the reasons why, the activists of that union attribute it to political reasons.
Among those detained are Josué Monroy, a member of the Monroy and Surmenage Band, as well as music producer Leonardo Canales, director of La Anteala, as well as Xochilt Tapia and Salvador Espinoza, managers of Saxo Producciones.
According to a local media report in Managua, during a recent activity, one of the groups said in a public act “that April is not forgotten,” referring to the month that the protests began in Nicaragua in 2018.
“It is a sign that nothing is normal. The intolerance of the dictatorship is in the light of day. They are willing to do anything, including killing. They do not support that inalienable rights to the human being can be manifested, such as the simple fact of an artist singing his songs, or that a graphic artist shows his paintings regardless of whether they are for or against them, “he said. to voice of america Nicaraguan composer Mario Rocha, who is in exile in Costa Rica.
According to Rocha, artists have played a fundamental role in Nicaragua and on the eve of the four years since the demonstrations, the government could not allow them to generate any type of protest in the country, where demonstrations are still prohibited, something that is seen by analysts as the imposition of a “de facto state of exception”.
“An artist is genuine, he cannot go against the truth and they (the government) are afraid of the truth and the people see themselves represented in that art. They know that a new uprising will be definitive”, indicates Rocha.
Although the arrests occurred on Tuesday, to date the corresponding authorities have not communicated where the musicians are being held and human rights defenders have sounded the alarm in this regard. “We are talking about temporary forced disappearances. The legislation establishes that the detention occurs in specific cases such as a court order, but these are arbitrary detentions above the Law”, he explains to the voice of america the activist Juan Carlos Arce, from the Nicaragua Never Again Collective.
Arce adds that the authorities are obliged to report where the musicians are detained and explain the reason for which they are accused. “The musicians have been detained since April 4, they are in forced disappearance, it is something serious.”
According to the latest report From the State Department, beginning May 28, 2021, police detained at least 40 opposition members and civil society leaders using a change to the criminal procedure code implemented in February that allows a detention period of up to 90 days during the prosecutor’s initial investigation, before filing charges.
The report notes that although they were technically in the custody of the police or prison authorities, the 40 detained leaders did not have access to legal counsel or family visits, and authorities did not disclose the location of these detainees.
A war started long ago
Although the reprisals against young musicians intensified four years after the protests, since Ortega’s return to power he has tried to monopolize intellectuals, athletes and artists.
However, those who do not adhere to the official discourse are subject to persecution, as happened with the Nicaraguan singer-songwriter Carlos Mejía Godoy, who during the Sandinista revolution played a key role.
However, Godoy distanced himself from the government in 2018, so in January 2021 the Nicaraguan National Assembly promulgated a law that establishes that songs, written, graphic and audiovisual documents related to General Sandino are cultural heritage of the nation.
Carlos Mejía Godoy, current dissident of the Sandinista Front party and exiled in Costa Rica, after the protests in April 2018, had long rejected the government’s use of his musical works in political acts.
“They continue to use and abuse our songs and not only ours, but those of the group Pancasán, Guardabarranco, and all of us who oppose being part of their official choir,” Godoy said in a past interview with VOA.
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