In mid-February the Nicaraguan Government stripped 300-odd Nicaraguans of their citizenship, the latest in a series of stunts, stifling any form of opposition to the totalitarian regime of Daniel Ortega. It was an act which spawned international condemnation from governments and NGOs, and evoked Human Rights Watch’s Juan Pappier’s observation, “The country is on the verge of becoming the western hemisphere’s equivalent of North Korea,” in an interview with the Washington Post.
The first declaration followed the brokering of a deal which saw the release of 222 political prisoners who were then exiled to the USA, where they were subsequently informed that they had been deprived of their citizenship. The next week, Justice Ernesto Rodriguez Mejia of the Appeals Court, announced that a further 94 Nicaraguans had been stripped of their citizenship, a group which included some of the country’s leading writers and journalists. The latest stateless group was informed by the court official that they had been found guilty on charges of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and “spreading false news”. He stated that their citizenship had been revoked since they were “traitors to the homeland”, and had ordered their property seized.
The list of those now deposed from their country of birth includes Carlos Fernando Chamorro, an investigative journalist; Sergio Ramirez, the internationally acclaimed novelist; Luis Carrion Cruz, a former Sandinista and colleague of Ortega; the writer and poet Gioconda Belli; the human rights activist, 84-year-old Vilma Nunez; and Bishop Rolando Alvarez of the Diocese of Matagalpa in Managua. Nunez and the bishop are among the few deportees still remaining in Nicaragua.
Last week Monday, the 56-year-old Bishop Alvarez was released from prison, but after talks between the Bishops of Nicaragua and Ortega’s government broke down, he was returned to custody on Wednesday, following his steadfast refusal to go into exile. An outspoken critic of Ortega’s ever-escalating persecution of the Catholic Church, during which time Church assets and property were seized, priests and religious arbitrarily detained, Bishop Alvarez was arrested last year. In February, when he refused to board the plane bound for the USA (in an agreement with the State Department), along with the other political dissidents, he was sentenced to 26 years and four months in prison for treason.
Luis Carrion Cruz was one of the nine commandantes (along with Ortega) of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which overthrew the US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza in the 1979 Nicaraguan Revolution. He served as First Vice-Minister for the Interior (1980-88), and then as Minister of Economy, Industry and Commerce (1988-1990). He parted company with Ortega in 1995, and became one of the founder members of the Sandinista Renovation Party. In June 2021, Carrion Cruz, fearing detention, following the arrest of opposition candidates and civic figures before the Nicaraguan General Elections, opted for exile.
Carlos Fernando Chamorro, like Carrion Cruz, now finds himself on the other side of the fence from Ortega, after faithfully serving the cause for years. Journalism has been his family’s lifeblood for decades and their voice has been the principal one in the cry for democracy. Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, Carlos’ father, was the editor of La Prensa, the only independent newspaper in the country and a constant thorn in the side of the 33-year Somoza dictatorship. The newspaper was closed on several occasions and subject to long periods of censorship. His assassination in January 1978 was a critical turning point in the revolution, shifting support in favour of the Sandinistas. Following Pedro’s death, his wife, Violeta took up the torch, publishing La Prensa during the Sandinista rule of 1980 to 1990, when she defeated Ortega in the general elections to become president of Nicaragua.
Carlos Chamorro, a Sandinista revolutionary served as the editor of Barricada, the official newspaper of the revolution, often clashing with his mother and siblings who bravely battled the continuing censorship wars to control the media’s output, by publishing La Prensa. During his mother’s reign, Barricada, no longer a mouthpiece of the government, practiced true journalism, with Carlos leading the charge. However, Ortega, still in charge of the party, sought a newspaper that he could control and following the 1994 congress, Chamorro and the top editors were fired, as the paper resorted to the previous format of focusing on the words of the commandantes, before folding in 1998. Chamorro, now an independent journalist, has wryly noted, “In Nicaragua, everyone knows that the only … traitors are Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo [his wife]. They have demolished democracy.”
Violeta’s term in office was followed by two conservative governments before Ortega grasped the reins of power, once again, in 2007. Since then, with Rosario at his side, he has abused the powers of his office to wrest control over all four branches of the government, the police and the military. No State Institution has escaped his grasp; not the National Assembly, not the Supreme Court, not the election commission. In January 2014, the National Assembly abolished term limits allowing Ortega to have unlimited five-year terms in office, while international observers are no longer welcome at election time. His rule is absolute, and no form of opposition is tolerated, least of all, from former colleagues and friends. The 2018 anti-government protests were met with a violent crackdown. The OAS’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported that 355 people were killed, thousands arrested and hundreds exiled.
As the 77-year-old Ortega, having morphed into the dictator he fought to replace four decades ago, drifts into his sunset days – a natural progression of time which he apparently doesn’t wish to pursue gracefully – the more desperate he becomes. Here, we have already witnessed silhouettes bearing eerie similarities to Ortega’s past measures and manoeuvres. It is important to pay close attention to the ongoing dire developments in Nicaragua where President Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian rule seeks to control every aspect of the lives of Nicaraguan citizens, as he clings to power by all means necessary.