“Just by protesting you are already risking your life”—Nicaraguan Exile Edgardo Pinell

Edgardo Pinell is a Nicaraguan lawyer and journalist living in exile in Spain. He currently works in the international section of El Debate. 

Nicaragua has become a dictatorship, but unlike other countries, such as Venezuela, this does not seem to have attracted much international attention. 

In the European case, the situation of countries like Venezuela, whose problem in terms of the number of exiles and refugees is immense in comparison with Nicaragua, has eclipsed the Nicaraguan drama. However, humanly, it should have the same value as the suffering of the Cuban or Venezuelan people. Nicaragua is suffering a dictatorship, with a repressive model that Daniel Ortega had kept, so to speak, in the drawer. He had used it in the eighties, and it still existed when he won in a more or less democratic way in 2007, and he uses it again at the moment when he sees that his power is at risk in 2018. This regime of terror unleashed by Ortega has claimed the lives of at least 350 young people and has caused the exile of more than 600 thousand people in a country of six million inhabitants, which represents a huge proportion. Of those exiles, the majority are in Costa Rica, another part in the United States, and, to a lesser extent, in Spain and Europe.

That repressive apparatus that Ortega takes out of the drawer in 2018, is it the army or the intelligence services?

The intelligence services. It is a paramilitary model of surveillance and repression because the army did not want to, or preferred not to, intervene openly. They were groups of hooded men who used weapons of war and who did not wear police or military insignia, and who carried out a violent and bloody repression. Some international organizations have identified these groups as para-police or paramilitary forces. 

In addition to these paramilitary groups, what else was Ortega relying on to impose his dictatorship?

Ortega had control of all branches of government because, in the last eleven years, since 2007, he had taken control of the judiciary and had won two elections fraudulently. That is to say, at the internal level, no one could stand up to him. At the economic level, he had an agreement with the private sector and had also hidden his animosity towards the Catholic Church. Externally, Ortega had accumulated a lot of capital from cooperation and corruption with Venezuela, and, in addition, numerous reports claim that the Cuban G2 has advised, accompanied, and trained the Nicaraguan national police and the Nicaraguan political police. Finally, under the Ortega government, a Russian satellite station has been built, supposedly for civilian and not military purposes, and even then, there was speculation of an alliance with the Putin regime. At that time, it also counted on the disinterest of the U.S. administration, first with Trump and then, even more, with Biden.

Venezuela maintains an alliance with Russia, China, and Iran. Is it the same with the Ortega regime?

Mainly with Russia and China. Ortega maintains a pro-Palestinian and pro-Iranian discourse, but his allies are the Russians and the Chinese. To the point that one of his sons, Laureano Ortega Murillo, who will probably be his successor, is the presidential delegate for relations with China and Russia. Daniel Ortega has insistently offered Beijing the construction of an interoceanic canal, a project that is not economically viable due to the presence of the Panama Canal, but that could perhaps be resurrected now if Trump takes control of the Canal.

Is the persecution against the Catholic Church, which is one of the best-known aspects of the regime’s repression, due to the fact that the Church has stood up to it or because it is beyond its control?

Unlike in the 1980s, this is no longer an exclusively ideological battle. In 2018, the Catholic Church acted in very good faith, but did not understand Daniel Ortega’s lack of scruples in taking advantage of the dialogue proposed by the Church between the students, the private sector, and the government. Ortega used this dialogue to reorganize his forces and launch a much stronger offensive. When some bishops realized that the dialogue was useless and that the repression was relentless, they were very critical and direct. The most emblematic cases are those of Bishops Silvio Baez and Rolando Alvarez, who have been forced into exile, but 150 other priests have also had to leave Nicaragua. Not to mention the expropriations, such as that of the Jesuit Central American University in Managua.

The regime has acted against the Catholic Church because it is the majority religion, and some of its members, now exiled, have been very belligerent. The truth is that the Church is the last remaining resistance against Ortega because, thanks to the repression, it has been easy for him to wipe out the partisan opposition and the media.

The control of the media has reached the point that there is a kind of “Aló Presidente” [a reference to a weekly live TV show where Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, from 1999 to 2012, would talk directly to the people and give ideological speeches] as it happened with Hugo Chávez.

Yes, but this program is not presented by Daniel Ortega, but by his wife, Rosario Murillo, who speaks every day at noon on all TV channels. It is proof of the absolute control of the media, with the exception of the social networks, by the regime.

Is there a chance for change in Nicaragua, and can international pressure undermine the Ortega regime?

Ortega is sustained by impunity because he knows that internally, he is not accountable, and internationally, when he sees others doing the same things he is doing and nothing happens, he also feels unpunished. Moreover, he has the firm support of his alliance with Cuba and Venezuela, while trying to strengthen his ties with Russia and China. He is not worried about European or U.S. sanctions, nor is he worried about not being able to leave the country, because Nicaragua is his kingdom.

To remove him democratically is very difficult because the regime has a monopoly of force. As long as it cannot be dissuaded from using it, Nicaraguans cannot change anything; we have to understand that just by protesting you are already risking your life.