On September 29, 2018, political demonstrations in Nicaragua were declared illegal by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Before this declaration, Ortega’s government had commenced Operación Limpieza (Operation “Clean-Up”) to “clean the streets,” or rid the country of all the people in favor of protesting against him.

 

According to Amnesty International during this operation the “Nicaraguan government intensified its use of arbitrary arrests, torture and lethal force against protesters in a “clean-up” operation by police and heavily armed pro-government groups.” The operation began in Jinoteca and Masaya—the two main cities where major student and civilian protests started in April of 2018—and then spread throughout the country, even to the capital city of Managua. Amid this chaos, hundreds of Nicaraguans have been killed and thousands injured, with many fleeing to neighboring Costa Rica either seeking asylum or travelling on tourist visas and overstaying their time.

 

Student Repression                                  

 

On November 2nd 2018, Daniela, a woman who works at a private university in Nicaragua, answers the phone. The sound of children playing and a TV in the background fills the room as she begins to speak about her experience with the current state of affairs in the country.

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Daniela tells me how at her university “only half of the students returned to the classroom following the protests in Masaya. Most of the students were exiled, fled the country, were imprisoned or killed.” The University itself tried sending a letter to the government saying that the detained students were model students, but it didn’t matter. The students were detained “just because.” They were detained for protesting and exercising their right to free speech, and she hasn’t seen many of them since.

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Apart from the letter that Daniela’s university wrote to the Nicaraguan government assuring it that the students that were taken away were good citizens, the university is trying to take a neutral stance, according to Daniela. “If you go in favor of the government you will be attacked, if you go in favor of the opposition you will be attacked.”

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Daniela explains how throughout public universities in Nicaragua, state police have been known to disappear students and professors away right on campus if they are suspected of being against the government.

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“Most of the violence where university administrators let police in happens in the public universities because they receive a certain percentage of government funding. They have not intimidated my university and the police have come close but have not taken students within the university itself,” Daniela commented.

 

On November 5th, 2018, three students who are currently in the country’s university system provided similar descriptions of the state of affairs in the country. Eduardo, who was a student at a public university in Nicaragua, described to me how he could no longer study for fear of being taken away or suspected of being against the government.

 

“All I wanted was the opportunity to continue my studies but because a lot of my friends and people I knew were involved in these protests it wasn’t safe for me to go back to school because I knew that the government could take me away,” he said.

 

Isabella, a current student at a private university, told me how the state police massacred many of the students she knew while they were engaging in protests against the government.

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“The violence here is terrible. You really cannot go outside without being scared of something happening to you because the government thinks that you are against it. Every day the situation has been getting worse and it has been hard to go back to school and see that a lot of my friends have left.”

 

Finally, Jose, a student who has left the country for Costa Rica, described the violence of the protests and his constant fear for his life despite taking a neutral stance on political issues.

 

“When I was in Nicaragua, I was just another student trying to study business so that I could start my own business one day. I had a savings account with all of my money saved up but once the government repression started it was no longer possible for me to live safely in my own neighborhood or finish my degree at school. My friends were being taken or killed and a lot of them left too. I used all of my savings to come to Costa Rica because I was honestly scared for my life. I never got involved in any of the protests but just being a student makes you a target. It’s sad because now I have to start all over again in this new country when I already had everything planned out in Nicaragua.”

 

A Mother’s Struggle

 

Although Daniela, who works at a private university in Nicaragua, is personally against the government’s methods, she does not voice her opinion for fear that her family will be targeted. She has heard of many cases of disappearances and believed that the “Government is using torture—especially in El Chipote, a prison in Managua—to get more information.” Among the forms of torture are beatings, cigarette burnings, and other violent acts she prefers not to mention.

 

As she shushes a child, she elaborates, “A neighbor of mine was beaten even though they confused him with someone else. They gave him a 3-year prison sentence and transferred him from Jinoteca prison to El Chipote.”

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“For some people it’s easier than others. For pro-government people it’s easy, for anti-government people it’s hard.”

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In Nicaragua, Daniela’s statement rings true as she described to me how, “if the state police see someone with the blue and white state flag, they will put them in jail because the flag has been identified with the student movement.”

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“If you even have blue and white balloons, they will say you are a part of the ‘terrorists.’”

 

When asked about the counter-marches of people supporting Ortega’s government, Daniela told me how those who march in favor of the government mostly work for the state and that they have a schedule of who needs to go and protest within their own occupations. Daniela explains to me how, for the most part, these people are obligated to protest out of fear of losing their jobs. Only a small minority go “because they are in favor of the government and blind to the situation in Nicaragua.”

 

Shortly after the protests started, she took her sons out of Nicaragua on tourist visas to Costa Rica. She left them with a friend of their father’s. The two youngest are still in high school and the eldest was in his fifth year of university at a public university in Nicaragua.

 

Her initial plan was to leave for Canada but as the situation in Nicaragua was “becoming more violent and unbearable” and because that Canada was not feasible at the time, she saw her second option as “sending my sons to Costa Rica.” Ortega’s Operación Limpieza was the final push which made Daniela fear for her children’s’ lives. Daniela explained that the reason she decided to send her sons to Costa Rica was because they were both students and wanted to become involved in the protests and she forbade them from doing so. Her eldest son even bought a Nicaraguan flag in order to wave at an upcoming protest. “They were in danger because they were students and it’s dangerous to be a student and have a flag. They can invent fake charges and put a fake sentence on you and then take you away. If anyone reports or suspects you for any reason it is sufficient to detain you.” The fear of having her sons unjustly arrested by the government or hurt during one of the protests motivated Daniela to send them away.

 

“They will probably have to come back to Nicaragua once their tourist Visa expires and then ask for permission to go back to Costa Rica again.” She tells me “it is difficult in Costa Rica economically” but “even though they are struggling over there it is better for them to have opportunities and freedoms that they don’t have here right now. Over there they can walk in the streets freely; they don’t have to fear being taken away; and I know that they are safe from the government.”

 

Demonizing the Opposition

 

In an interview for the Harvard College Human Rights Review, Cristiana Chamorro stated that demonizing the opposition has been Ortega’s main strategy in trying to maintain his power over a country that no longer wants him to be its leader. Multiple professors at all levels of experience have been fired just for supporting students and colleagues.

 

Chamorro currently serves as an Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow at Harvard , and serves as vice president for La Prensa, Nicaragua’s most-read newspaper.

 

Chamorro highlighted the fact that in addition to students and professors, independent journalists and media personnel are being persecuted under the Ortega government. According to a report from the Violeta Chamorro foundation, over 420 human rights violations occurred within an 8-month period in 2018 and there were over 230 victims of these violations. This report includes specifically documented cases with names for all of the victims, dates, and specific violations. Chamorro stated that “The right to complete freedom of speech has been lost … the country is heavily censoring the media.”

 

Chamorro explained how at first, priests tried to be mediators to facilitate participation in a national dialogue, explaining how some priests supported students and protected young people by allowing them to take refuge in churches. But the issue, Chamorro stated, is that the “government has started attacking the Catholic Church.” People in the government police force have demonized churches, stolen money from them, and threatened people during mass. Furthermore, even many of the doctors who have been caught treating people in the movement have been fired. In short, the Nicaraguan government has tried to eliminate all forms of opposition and present these actors in a negative light within state-controlled media.

 

Conclusion

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Chamorro, Daniela, and the students interviewed for this article all agreed on the need for fair and transparent elections; greater sanctions by the international community to drive Ortega out of power; and a newly elected government without Ortega in power. When voicing these opinions, they stress the fact that Ortega has not respected the human rights of Nicaraguans and are quick to point out his abuse of state police power on civilian protesters. Government officials and government-owned media in Nicaragua have denied these practices, but this denial becomes even less credible when one party controls all organs of government.

 

 “The government is completely controlled by Ortega-Murillo. Judicial power is completely controlled by Ortega-Murillo. Legislative power is completely controlled by Ortega-Murillo. And Executive power is completely controlled by Ortega-Murillo,” Daniela stated.

 

This control, as described by Daniela, is so all-encompassing that she has sent her sons out of the country. She plans to continue keeping a low profile so that she can continue to travel back and forth between Nicaragua and Costa Rica in order to see her sons.

 

Charmorro is not sure what the future of Nicaragua will look like, but she fears that Ortega will not want to back down from power. Banning free speech and government opposition could be the first step to an even more oppressive regime if Ortega continues to maintain control. For now, basic human rights in Nicaragua are denied each and every day and their future revival is in danger. Nicaraguans are going to continue protesting, but it is up to the international community to find and pursue a course of action that will help the people of Nicaragua.

 

The human rights of Nicaraguans are being increasingly violated as a result of Ortega’s response to the uprisings. Imprisonment, torture, and the criminalization of free speech have started a downward spiral in a country which used to be one of the more stable countries in Central America, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. People in Nicaragua are scared, and they are fleeing the country; fighting back; or trying to keep a low profile. One thing is for certain—their lives are shifting as a result of this political unrest and, according to Chamorro, there is a desire to push back the government on its violent stance towards its people. Ortega doesn’t want to give up his power, but the people of Nicaragua are not going to give up fighting for their rights. Ultimately, Nicaraguans are facing a turning point in their country’s future. Will Ortega continue to remain in power or not? Unless the government decides to change its current course of action, there will likely be even more violence as the people of Nicaragua fight for change.

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