The PEN International organization, through the “Ojo en Nicaragua” observatory, denounced the closure of non-governmental organizations and attacks against journalists as part of its “repression and fear” strategy.
The entity rejects the closure of entities linked to main figures of culture in Nicaragua: the Luisa Mercado Foundation, created by the writer Sergio Ramírez, the Solentiname Development Association, founded by the poet and priest Ernesto Cardenal, who died in January 2020; and recently the International Poetry Festival in Granada, a project that began in 2005 and each year has brought together hundreds of poets from all over the world. Its vice president is the poet Gioconda Belli, a renowned Sandinista dissident and former president of PEN Nicaragua.
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“As part of its strategy of repression and silence, the government has decided to attack non-governmental organizations. Since 2018, Ortega has closed some 140 NGOs that promoted projects in the country,” he added. PEN.
The organization highlights that it was only a few days before the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of the protests on April 18 that “the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo increased the repression against opponents, released political prisoners and relatives of people killed during the civic rebellion, ordering the search and siege of their homes”.
The legal personality of PEN Nicaragua was canceled on February 15 in the National Assembly with 75 votes in favor, zero against, 11 abstentions and five present. That entity decided to suspend its activities in February 2021 due to the controversial Law regulating foreign agents approved by the regime in 2020, in which it sanctions those who receive financing and donations from abroad.
“We have informed PEN International of our decision to suspend our affiliation,” announced Gioconda Belli, who presided over PEN Nicaragua, whose organization had been operating in the country for 21 years.
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In the recent report they denounce that in the country there have been “new attacks on freedom of the press, the forced exile of Nicaraguan artists and the deportation of foreign journalists who tried to enter the country, marked the events of the last week in Nicaragua, where The government also ordered the surprise closure of the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS), the expulsion of its officials and the confiscation of its building in Managua.
The report of the Observatory of Attacks on the Freedom of the Independent Press, presented on April 21, warns that attacks on free journalism persist, after having recorded 78 complaints: 18 in January, 34 in February and 26 in March.
The document indicates that in Nicaragua the profession of journalists has been criminalized, prosecuting and condemning men and women of the press “for informing or for being a critical voice of the government of Daniel Ortega.” Remember that to this day journalists Miguel Mora, Miguel Mendoza, Cristiana Chamorro, Jaime Arellano (both under house arrest), Pedro Joaquín Chamorro and Juan Lorenzo Holman Chamorro remain in prison.
