Ortega and Murillo’s crusade against freedom of expression

They were presidential hopefuls, newspaper editors, or student leaders. This week –with blue uniforms and escorted by police officers–, they were exhibited by the Government of Nicaragua, after more than a year incarcerated.

For three days, opponents considered “political prisoners” by humanitarian organizations were removed from their cells while the official press took photos of them.

“A circus,” declared the former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States, Arturo McFields, exiled in the United States.

Among the prisoners exhibited were four of the aspiring presidential candidates who intended to challenge President Ortega in the November 2021 elections; as well as the general manager of the newspaper ‘La Prensa’, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, the business leader Álvaro Vargas and the former dissident Sandinista guerrilla Dora María Téllez.

They all come from different sectors, but something unites them: at some point they raised their voices to express their rejection of the regime headed by Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo. And today they are serving sentences of between seven and 13 years in prison for “treason against the country.”

For human rights organizations, this staging is nothing more than the latest act of persecution that the ruling couple has unleashed against anyone who opposes them. “They use these people as an example so that no one dares to raise their voice in Nicaragua,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

Prisons and airplanes full of opponents

A day earlier, the relatives of the inmates had denounced a reduction in food rations, which caused “malnutrition and extreme weight loss” in El Chipote prison.

This dreaded prison is filled with people who once dared to express an unfavorable opinion about the regime. Also, planes leave every day with activists who want to avoid the same fate.

“It is more serious than what is happening in Venezuela. There, Juan Guaidó is at least free to move. In Nicaragua, that is impossible,” Juan Diego Barberena, a member of the National Unity, the largest opposition movement, told France 24. from Nicaragua.

The year 2018, a point of no return

The government of Daniel Ortega, which had already shown signs of authoritarianism, took a complete turn last year, when it became clear that he lacked the popular support to win another term. Thus, the November elections were held with all the opponents who aspired to the Presidency in jail.

This trajectory seems to repeat the history of Nicaragua, a country that freed itself from the yoke of dictator Anastasio Somoza thanks to the Sandinista revolution of the 1980s, only to find itself half a century later in another authoritarian regime.

In an attempt to express boredom and lack of freedom, in April 2018 a popular revolt began in the streets of Nicaragua. What began as a discontent against reforms to the social security system, soon escalated into a protest against the violent repression and ended with the demand for the resignation of President Ortega.

An actor that participated in these protests, although not directly, was the Catholic Church. And currently he is paying the consequences: in recent months, the persecution against clerics has intensified. In fact, among 200 inmates considered political prisoners for whom the organizations demanded immediate release this week, there are 11 Catholic priests, arrested in the last three months, including Bishop Rolando Álvarez.

And if in this political war against the Catholic Church the detention of religious has a special relevance, it is not necessarily at the center of the Nicaraguan headlines.

“In any democratic country, the arrest of Bishop Álvarez would be very important news, the Police would have to give explanations. But in Nicaragua it did not seem to be the most important news of the day,” laments Pedro Vaca, special rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in an interview with France 24.

“An official delirium for control of the story”

And it is that an essential branch of freedom of expression resides in the freedom of the press. But in this area, alarming news from Nicaragua has also proliferated.

The murder of journalist Ángel Gahona, the destruction of ‘Radio Daría’, the assault on ‘Confidencial’, the imprisonment of Lucía Pineda and Miguel Mora, directors of ‘100% Noticias’, are some examples of the persecution against independent media lives in the Central American nation.

“There is no longer any printed newspaper that circulates freely and daily in Nicaragua. Not a single television channel that narrates reality. Only a parallel reality can be broadcast, that of (the) lies that the Government created,” says Juan Diego Barberena , from the Blue and White National Unity bloc.

“There is an official delirium for the control of the story”, complements Pedro Vaca.

Last week, the almost centenary newspaper ‘La Prensa’, – whose offices have been occupied by the Police for a year -, reported that government operators were removing equipment and machinery from its facilities. Currently, three of the directors of that newspaper are in prison and the entire editorial staff is in exile.

And it is that this decision to flee Nicaragua has become one of the only loopholes for critical journalists.

According to the trade organization Independent Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua, at least 150 communicators have gone into exile due to pressure or threats since 2018.

Sources of journalistic information, at “extreme risk”

Journalists who decide to continue in Nicaragua take very high risks, as do their sources. “People are very afraid. They can give statements in the morning and end up in jail in the afternoon,” says Juan Diego Barberena.

Anonymization then became a vital necessity, which sometimes is not enough to protect an informer from the government’s obsession to control the story: “There are very brave actors, and keys to the flow of information about what is happening in Nicaragua who are at extreme risk,” highlights Pedro Vaca, of the IACHR.

This shadow of constant fear is part of a systematic repression that encompasses all critical voices. “There is a deployment of censorship mechanisms, which, as a whole, aim to annul and annihilate de facto any expression other than the official voice,” declares Pedro Vaca. “Any actor who has a different look is going to get pressure, or is already suffering from it,” he adds.

“Ortega governs as he pleases because he controls all the powers of the State and also the security forces. There is no independent institution standing that can act as a brake on executive power,” Tamara Taraciuk, acting director, summarizes for France 24. of Human Rights Watch for the Americas.

“And if he requires an additional tool to further establish his authority over any sector, he creates it. He has no problem skipping legal prohibitions or guarantees of the Constitution,” Pedro Vaca completes.

Juan Diego Barberena joins that line and adds that “they are giving legal formality to the persecution.”

An example of this is the Special Cybercrime Law, which criminalizes the practice of journalism, according to human rights organizations.

Coming into force on December 30, 2020, the so-called ‘Muzzle Law’ aims to curb criticism of Ortega on social networks, as well as press publications. But for Tamara Taraciuk, “it is an outrage that is typical of an authoritarian regime that uses instruments to try to silence uncomfortable information.”

In August, a legal reform gave the Ministry of the Interior the absolute power to strip organizations of legal personality without having to go through the Executive.

A concern for many organizations, who remember that since the beginning of 2022, President Ortega has already closed some 1,500 NGOs, ranging from small theater groups to charitable organizations that ensured access to health or food, in one of the most poor in Latin America.