Marissa Olivares was just 16 in 1976 when she became a supporter of the Sandinista resistance then struggling to dislodge the Somoza family from power in Nicaragua. Many years later, she contemplates returning to Nicaragua to confront what she describes as a distinct criminal oligarchy, this one run by President Daniel Ortega, the previous Sandinsta rebel who dethroned Anastasio Somoza so a few years ago.
As an idealistic teen, she was willing to endure jail due to her beliefs. But now, at 62, “I don’t know if I can do this,” Ms. Olivares says. Stories of the mistreatment of people that have been imprisoned by the regime—led by Mr. Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo—haunt her.
Besides, as a Fulbright scholar-in-residence at Seattle University, Ms. Olivares could simply stay put after her residency concludes, joining hundreds of other Nicaraguans looking for asylum in america. She has loads of family and friends here already—some who left throughout the Somozas’ kleptocratic reign, some throughout the U.S.-sponsored Contra insurgency against the Sandinistas from 1979 to 1990. Now others are poised to affix a up to date flight from the Ortega-Murillo regime.
As an idealistic teen, Marissa Olivares was willing to endure jail in Nicaragua due to her beliefs. But now, at 62, “I don’t know if I can do this.”
A sociologist at a university in Nicaragua, Ms. Olivares is willing to talk on the record about conditions in Nicaragua despite the evident risk. “Don’t worry,” she says wryly. “I’m already on a listing in my country.”
Colleagues have been harassed and others denied re-entry after traveling outside of Nicaragua. She is uncertain if she will likely be allowed back in or if she faces arrest due to criticisms of the regime in articles like this one.
Her colleague at Seattle University, Serena Cosgrove, the director of the varsity’s Latin American Studies program and coordinator of its Central America Initiative, puts it bluntly: “Nicaragua right away… has turn into a totalitarian state.”
In an anti-democratic process that has escalated sharply in recent times, the Ortega regime has rounded up and imprisoned political opponents, including former Sandinista comrades. Lots of more have been arrested for speaking out, and hundreds of nongovernmental civic and humanitarian groups, radio and press outlets have been shuttered. Presidential campaigns for the reason that 2006 election which returned Mr. Ortega to power bordered on electoral farce; in probably the most recent election in 2021, the federal government overtly jailed candidates running against Mr. Ortega.
Mr. Ortega’s authoritarian tendencies had been evident, Ms. Cosgrove says, soon after his return to power in 2007, but they accelerated in 2018 when protests against social security cuts and the federal government’s inadequate response to forest fires within the Indio Maíz Reserve were violently suppressed; greater than 300 people were killed.
The Catholic Church attempted a mediating role at the moment but, because the last independent civic actor standing, it quickly became a goal itself, based on Ms. Cosgrove. Growing harassment of the church culminated last summer with the arrest of Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos of Matagalpa.
Bishop Álvarez briefly materialized in Managua for a pre-trial hearing on Jan. 10, accused of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news.”
To this point in 2023, religious processions celebrating feast days have been prohibited across Nicaragua, and on Jan. 17, the Rev. Oscar Benavidez Dávila was declared guilty of “conspiracy to undermine national security and sovereignty” and “spreading fake news.” Prosecutors are looking for a sentence of eight years.
On Jan. 10, Bishop Álvarez briefly materialized from what the federal government has described as house arrest in Managua for a pre-trial hearing, accused of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news.” Exactly where the bishop is being held and under what conditions shouldn’t be known. A frequent government critic, Bishop Álvarez had strongly objected to the closing of Catholic radio and tv stations last yr.
Ms. Cosgrove believes that, like others before him, Bishop Álvarez can expect a “sham trial,” its final result predetermined. The usage of the judiciary against the church appears to have had the specified effect. Ms. Cosgrove believes that faced with the selection of arrest or exile, priests, religious and other church leaders in Nicaragua have opted for silence as a way to remain present in a pastoral capability.
The bishop’s trial is scheduled to start on Jan. 23. There are some indications that the proceedings may not go as easily because the Ortega-Murillo regime might hope. In keeping with Artículo 66, a Nicaraguan digital journal, Nieves Hernandez of Matagalpa, a former worker of the diocesan radio station, is amongst those that will likely be called to testify by prosecutors. On his Facebook account on Jan. 19, he wrote: “I’ve never sold myself or will betray my church or our priests and long live Monsignor Rolando.”
Nicaraguan human rights advocates proceed to plead for a stronger denunciation of the regime from Pope Francis and other global church leaders. The Vatican has limited itself in recent months to expressions of concern. In September, Pope Francis said he didn’t understand the behavior of the Nicaraguan government but hoped to stay in dialogue with it.
A frequent government critic, Bishop Álvarez had strongly objected to the closing of Catholic radio and tv stations last yr.
In a press release released on Dec. 16, Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, Ailing., chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, called on the U.S. government and the international community “to pursue the immediate release of Bishop Álvarez, the restoration of non secular freedom and human rights guarantees, and initiate a strategy of restoring the democratic order and the rule of law in Nicaragua.”
But such condemnations don’t appear to concern the Ortega-Murillo regime, which seems only to have turn into emboldened by its near complete international isolation. “They don’t care about any consequences,” Ms. Olivares says. “They don’t pay any attention to any system of international regulation; they are usually not accountable” to any international or multilateral political entities.
Though Mr. Ortega, the previous Sandinista, still talks a very good game concerning the virtues of socialism and repeats familiar slogans concerning the pernicious intrigues of america, to Ms. Olivares, there may be nothing left that reflects the idealism of the past, nor even any loyalty to the political ambitions of socialism.
“This group of those that call themselves Sandinista who’re in power…don’t represent with their actions, with their policy, any sort of political ideology.” They’re, in truth, closer to a criminal mafia, she says, “who control the economics… the politics, the institutions of the country.”
“This group of those that call themselves Sandinista who’re in power don’t represent with their actions, with their policy, any sort of political ideology.” They’re, in truth, closer to a criminal mafia.
“You possibly can’t use this sort of historical understanding of ‘left’ and ‘right’ to investigate what’s happening in Nicaragua right away since it doesn’t fit into that framework,” Ms. Cosgrove says.
“Quite a few progressive, middle-aged and older adults in america which have been following Central America have this sort of romanticized version of the Sandinistas, so there’s a hesitancy in some places on the left here … to criticize what’s what’s happening in Nicaragua,” she adds.
But there may be much to criticize. “All of the [civic] spaces are closed in my country,” Ms. Olivares said. “No one is saying anything within the media, within the social networks; everybody is shut down because everybody is afraid.”
And now that silencing has prolonged to the church, she says, a source of frustration to average Nicaraguans. Previously, she says, Nicaraguan clergy stood fearlessly on the side of oppressed people. But now “the strong priests are in jail or in exile,” she concludes.
Still, she has loads of sympathy for those unwilling to talk out. “I can’t judge because I’m not in Nicaragua,” Ms. Olivares says. “I’m talking freely to you here within the U.S. It’s tough to talk loudly in Nicaragua,” but “the sensation against this regime is just despair.”
Greater than 328,000 people—about 5 percent of the country’s population of 6.7 million—fled Nicaragua last yr, spiking to the highest of U.S. border patrol lists.
“The essential decision of most Nicaraguans from each social status is to only leave since the economic situation is difficult, the political situation is difficult,” Ms. Olivares says. “The individuals who can leave are leaving.”
In reality, greater than 328,000 people—about 5 percent of the country’s population of 6.7 million—fled Nicaragua last yr. The Recent York Times reports that the variety of Nicaraguans looking for asylum in america has spiked to the highest of U.S. border patrol lists. By the top of November 2022, greater than 180,000 Nicaraguans had crossed into america—about 60 times as many because the number who sought entry throughout the same period two years ago. (In an try and take care of the alarming conditions on the border due to these latest waves of dislocated people from Nicaragua, Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba, the Biden administration announced recent measures this month meant to curtail irregular migration but open broader channels for legitimate asylum claims.)
“You may have over 200,000 people looking for refugee status in Costa Rica,” Ms. Cosgrove says. “You may have other Nicaraguans in other parts of the world looking for political asylum.”
What does solidarity seem like under such conditions? Ms. Cosgrove suggests supporting Nicaraguan asylum seekers, particularly in hard-pressed Costa Rica, urging more humane immigration policies here in america and assisting Nicaraguan journalists working underground or in exile. And he or she argues that, despite a messy history of meddling in Nicaragua’s affairs, america should proceed to press for the discharge of political prisoners and the restoration of human rights and political order in Nicaragua.
Amongst those that stay behind, some find hope for change simply within the undeniable fact that the elderly Mr. Ortega and Ms. Murillo cannot go on for much longer, based on Ms. Olivares. However the couple share nine children (one, a step-daughter to Daniel Ortega who accused him in 1998 of sexual and psychological abuse, lives in exile). Several Ortega children appear poised to step forward as a part of a recent generation of family leadership, replicating a cycle of corruption and oppression Nicaragua seems incapable of escaping.