“In Nicaragua you have to be careful who’s listening to you when someone picks you up because one word can land you in jail.” Rosa prefers to hide her real name and will ask that the date or location of the interview not be given – the dates in this text only indicate where it was written – with a promise to publish it when it is on is most useful. Under the pretext of “doing a bit of tourism”, he left his country to meet with other human rights defenders. But he will return to continue to covertly tell what’s happening in the state that Daniel Ortega rules with an iron fist. Also to be the voice of those who “prefer not to say it out loud because they know that they are jeopardizing their freedom”. “If they find out why I left, they won’t let me in; it’s exile or prison,” he says.
The deportation of 222 political prisoners just released by Daniel Ortega for immediate banishment to the United States is proof that Rosa’s fear is not just a fear, but a real threat. “There are more than 50 academics, religious or journalists who attended international events and who were later banned from entering the country,” he says. That’s why this woman, a member of the Organization of Independent Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua, an organization formed after the 2018 protests against the Ortega regime, knows that discretion is one of her best defenses. “You have to be like a spy agent to continue reporting from Nicaragua,” he says.
If they find out why I’m out, they won’t let me in; Is it exile or prison
Rosa has built what she calls “a low profile” to continue her activism in an organization fighting to preserve an iota of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Nicaragua. In his public life he deals with advertising issues and keeps his social networks alive with “inconsequential posts”. “If you completely remove your networks, you’ll also get caught in the crosshairs,” he warns. But when he sets about the task of protecting journalists at risk, supporting reporters in exile, or documenting attacks by state or paramilitary forces to denounce them in international forums, he “speaks in a low voice”, closing “the windows of his casa”, uses VPN (a tool to protect the Internet connection) and other computer technologies, which he will not describe in detail in order not to provide further information. “When we work in our network, we often don’t know who is on the other end of the line,” he says.
Not knowing the identity of people like you fighting for democracy is almost the basic norm. “If they search your home, they can find out who you’re contacting,” he explains. And the raid would end with many more activists in jail.
In 2022 alone, at least 3,137 organizations were banned in Nicaragua, according to the monitoring by Rosa and her colleagues. “These illegalizations not only resulted in a formal closure, but also in robberies and looting and even rapes,” laments the activist. He would like to refer to a case he saw firsthand: “Some compañeras were sexually assaulted by paramilitary men in the midst of these interventions; everyone knows they belong to the state because they act with total impunity”. According to Rosa, “There are cases where the state should have acted ex officio and looked for those responsible, but it didn’t.” The women didn’t report it because “if you go to the police and ask for help, you are probably the victim”.
“Paranoid” about the repression, however, is that “Ortega even attacked organized micro-expressions, such as neighborhood associations or groups that were responsible for street cleaning”. Rosa has an explanation: “You know that organized people can have their own ideas and push their own projects, while the Sandinista regime is the only idea of the party, which is that of the Ortega family [la vicepresidenta Rosario] Murillo”. Such is the paranoia that “police patrols are instructed to patrol even 15-year-old parties taking place in the streets should they turn into a protest.” In 2018, protests were banned in the country.
Ortega has even attacked organized micro-expressions such as neighborhood clubs
Ortega’s next goal, he says, is the Internet. “They want the state to intervene in the telephone companies and control the Internet connection because they know that people organize themselves via social networks.”
“Are you afraid of being discovered?”
“Yes, but I’m willing to keep going until I get caught.” The Somoza dictatorship lasted more than 40 years. But he went and fell. Ortega knows it and is therefore afraid.
Follow PLANETA FUTURO on TwitterFacebook and Instagram and subscribe to our “Newsletter” here.