In his 38 years of experience, the photojournalist of the newspaper the press who identifies himself as *Luis, had never had to leave his work teams behind to leave Nicaragua abruptly. He went into exile with only a small backpack with a few shirts.
He also took with him -he adds- “uncertainties, fears and nostalgia”.
This reporter, who covered the war in Nicaragua during the 1980s, made the decision to leave the country after his home was raided “with great violence” twice in a row. The last coverage of him was the expulsion of a group of nuns from the country.
“I knew they were coming for me, so I activated my security protocol and started moving to safe houses while I waited for my release,” the veteran reporter tells the magazine. voice of america from a point in San José where he is exiled. “Everything was aimless and aimless, all to preserve your integrity, your life and your freedom.”
*Luis’s fear was to end up like the two independent La Prensa collaborators who were arrested the same day their homes were raided by the police.
“It’s traumatic and painful for one to go out like that,” he added. This worker is just one of a massive group of newspaper employees the press who left the country after denouncing that the “Daniel Ortega regime unleashed a fierce persecution against his collaborators.”
Within this group are reporters, photographers and the administrative staff of the newspaper. All were victims of government harassment and worked “low profile” for security reasons, he stressed to the VOA the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Eduardo Enríquez, via Skype.
the press, with almost 100 years of existence, is the oldest newspaper in Nicaragua and one of the most critical of President Daniel Ortega. That has earned him retaliation since the president returned to power in 2007.
There have been several strategies to silence him, including the lack of access to public information and the denial of reporters accessing press conferences. But since 2018, when the protests against Ortega arose, the Sandinista president took more drastic measures and it was a matter of time before the justice system “fabricated accusations” against the pressEnriquez said.
In 2021, the newspaper was left with only the digital edition because the government prevented access to the raw material and in that same year its facilities were taken over by the Nicaraguan police. Its general manager Juan Lorenzo Holmann was also arrested, and later sentenced to nine years in prison for the alleged crime of laundering money, goods and assets.
On that date, other editors of the newspaper left the country “because it was evident that the actions were going against us,” comments Enríquez, but the reporters and photographers continued working, as well as the editorial and administrative staff.
Despite “this new wave of repression in which two members of our team have been arrested”, the press decided to remove all staff from the newsroom, says the newspaper’s senior editor.
An event that did not even happen in the war of the 1980s
*Luis covered the war in the 1980s and has fresh images in his memory of “the pain postcards from the 1980s war that left Nicaraguans in great pain because it left thousands of people dead.”
Now the photographer considers that what is currently being experienced is a “reissue” of the repression of that time, despite the fact that there is no armed conflict.
“Unfortunately, these episodes of pain and repression are being repeated, it is what the totalitarian and dictatorial regimes prescribe. We are reissuing the same tragedies of the 70s with the Somozas and the 80s with the Sandinistas, today with a ferocious dictatorship that is annihilating the population.”
And in this sense, Enriquez agrees, mentioning that Nicaragua is being led by the “Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo regime towards a totalitarian situation that is not only expressed in the forced exile of an entire media outlet that is, let us say, the dean and historically it has been the most critical means of communication with all governments.”
Enríquez also recalls that the outlet had to close in the past due to other “regimes, including the first version of Sandinismo in the 1980s, and Somocismo before them,” but emphasizes that its facilities had never been taken over and “it had never been seen this situation of having to take the entire newsroom out of the country to be able to continue working.”
For this reason Enríquez called on the “countries of America and the world” to pay attention to what is happening in Nicaragua. “They have to realize that this is not a government, this is an authoritarian regime, or rather totalitarian, in the power of a group of criminals.”
“They have to realize that this is not a government, this is an authoritarian regime, or rather totalitarian, in the power of a group of criminals.”
Almost 150 exiled journalists in a small country
According to Abigail Hernández, from the organization of Nicaraguan Independent Journalists and Communicators (PCIN), in just two weeks some 16 reporters have left the country, bringing the total to 136 in Costa Rica.
Dagmar Thiel, director of Fundamedios in the United States, stated in an interview with the VOA his “extreme concern about the resurgence of the criminalization of the independent press in Nicaragua” and classified what is happening as “very serious.”
“Nicaragua is a relatively small country and has a very high number of journalists in exile who generally go to Costa Rica, Panama, the United States or Spain,” Thiel said.
He stressed that several journalists who have tried to legally leave through the Nicaraguan border are blocked and their passports are confiscated, for which many have to leave through blind spots or leave without documents.
Thiel mentioned that based on reports from local organizations, several media outlets continue to be victims of attacks, including some religious ones and others critical of President Ortega.
“What has been happening with the press since 2018 is very serious. All the regulations to toughen the exercise of the press have today joined a repressive apparatus that is practically leaving without independent journalists who will be able to monitor what is happening in Nicaragua. Many of the journalists are going into exile”, denounced the director of Fundamedios.
Ortega, for his part, has denied the attacks against the media and has accused the critical press of “lying.” In fact, his wife, Rosario Murillo, has called reporters who question the administration that she directs together with Ortega “chachalacas.”
[*Luis es un nombre ficticio para proteger la fuente que teme por su seguridad]
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