The human rights defender urges Nicaraguans not to vote in the presidential elections on Sunday, considering that they are a “farce” mounted by a “murderous tyranny”
Nicaraguan human rights defender Bianca Jagger appears on the other side of the screen with the Nicaraguan flag in the background. It is quite a declaration of intentions, because the regime led by Daniel Ortega has criminalized the protests and any person who manifests in the Central American country with the patriotic blue and white colors can be considered a dissident and therefore arrested. This has happened since June with dozens of Nicaraguans who have expressed their repudiation of the regime, including seven candidates for the presidency by the opposition.
Jagger (Managua, 76 years old) does not hide his disgust at what he considers a “tyranny”. She denounced the arbitrariness of the Somoza dynasty, supported the Sandinista revolution, criticized the United States for its interventionist policy in the eighties against Nicaragua and now faces the outrages of Ortega. In 2005, he established the Bianca Jagger Foundation for the Defense of Human Rights (BJHRF), an organization that is dedicated, among other things, to the protection of the environment. In 2003 she was appointed ambassador of the European Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.
During these days, Jagger maintains a busy schedule of interviews and activities in which his criticism of the old Sandinista guerrilla is not cut short. From London, where he lives, he calls on Nicaraguans not to participate in what he calls a farce: Sunday’s presidential elections, in which Ortega will achieve his third consecutive term. Ortega is harshly criticized and described as a “traitor.” “What would I say to Daniel Ortega now? That he is a vile and criminal being, a criminal dictator ”, he affirms.
Question. You participated in 2018 in the so-called March of the Mothers , in Managua, a demonstration that was violently repressed by the Ortega regime. How was that experience?
Answer. He had arrived in Nicaragua again in May to support an Amnesty International report on human rights violations. The snipers started attacking us and a young man, Levis Rugama, managed to get me out of there. I have witnessed the atrocities committed by the Ortega regime. I have seen when it is ordered to attack the participants of a peaceful march, in which there were entire families, the elderly, children. That day there were 19 dead and 285 people injured.
Q. What did you think at that critical moment?
A. That was a very violent attack and for many people unexpected. But, to tell you the truth, I expected it. I had a great fear that Ortega would attack us. I had asked a friend the day before if he thought they were going to attack the participants and he said, ‘I don’t think so. Ortega sometimes uses the stick and other times the carrot. I don’t think a march with thousands of people will attack tomorrow. ‘ That day I did an interview with Christiane Amanpour and she asked me if I was afraid and I told her that if someone says they are not afraid in circumstances like these they are crazy.
Q. From that demonstration the movement of Nicaraguan mothers who demand the clarification of the murder of their children was consolidated. You have been very involved with them. What does it mean for you to work with women who have lost their children for asking for freedom in Nicaragua?
R. It has been very moving to hear your stories. I have great admiration for the courage and bravery of those women who continue to fight and who continue to denounce the crimes against their children, despite all the persecution they have suffered from the regime.
Q: The United States Congress just passed a law that allows President Biden to extend pressure on the regime. Do you think that these sanctions could make Ortega turn around in Nicaragua?
R. I believe that this Reborn Law is a light at the end of the tunnel. It is a light of hope. That it was approved in a bipartisan way says a lot. It now allows the US government to suspend Nicaragua from the Cafta Free Trade Agreement, in addition to reviewing the agreements with the World Bank and the IMF.
Q: But those sanctions can also negatively impact Nicaraguans.
R. Look, it has been very important for me to weigh the pros and cons. It is true that they could affect Nicaraguans, but what we have to be clear about is that the Nicaraguan people are living under a state of terror, they are a hostage of the Ortega-Murillo regime. Poverty has increased, brutal repression is causing Nicaraguans to flee the country. What we really need are tools to be able to weaken this regime.
Q: You live in Europe, where there are still many people and movements on the left who think that there is a revolutionary government in Nicaragua. You supported the Sandinista revolution. What do you say to these people on the left in Europe who still believe that Nicaragua is having a revolution?
R. I think that every day there are fewer people, even from the recalcitrant left, who believe in this romantic idea of the Sandinista revolution. I think that one of the actions of Daniel Ortega that they cannot understand or accept is that the regime has kidnapped [imprisoned] Dora María Téllez, Hugo Torres, Víctor Hugo Tinoco, leaders of the Sandinista revolution. How can they believe that this is a leftist revolution and at the same time accept that these iconic characters are in prison today? There are many actions that make it very difficult for the European left to continue defending Ortega. I am talking about the brutal repression, the fact that today we have 39 opposition leaders in jail, including seven presidential candidates, student leaders, peasants, journalists, women. How can they defend those actions?
Q: You met Ortega during the revolutionary government. If you had it in front of you, what would you say?
R. In several interviews I have addressed the camera directly and I have said: ‘Commander, you are a traitor of the revolution. Aren’t you ashamed? ‘ I have called him vendepatria when he repressed the struggle of the peasants against the interoceanic canal , because that is another betrayal, by selling our national patrimony to a foreign individual. What would I say to Daniel Ortega now? That he is a vile and criminal being, a criminal dictator. We are talking about a man who has been a pedophile. One of the things that was really shocking to me and that made me truly reconsider everything I had previously thought about is the moment when I learned that Ortega had raped Zoilamérica Narváez .
Q. Since you mention the case of Zoilamérica, how do you assess the role of Rosario Murillo, the mother?
R. Shameful and heinous. On behalf of the two, Ortega and Murillo. I am not in favor of those who want to accuse Rosario Murillo of everything. He may be a devilish character, but in reality they are both evil and criminal characters. It is true that she has an enormous influence on Daniel Ortega, but we cannot excuse him and try to accuse Rosario Murillo alone of being responsible for the atrocities that are being committed in Nicaragua.
Q: There are those who say that this new regime is worse than the Somoza dynasty. Do you share that opinion?
R. I share it and I am not looking for excuses to defend the Somoza dynasty. In Nicaragua there was an armed revolution against a dictator, but today what there is is a peaceful movement, a peaceful resistance. We have no weapons here. And they are massacring them! The fact that the Ministry of Health prohibits doctors from giving assistance to students injured in the protests, who died at the doors of hospitals, is brutal. There are 328 murdered. They have been classified as crimes against humanity.
P. Ortega is re-elected next Sunday. What options do Nicaraguans have?
R. I call on Nicaraguans not to vote, not to leave their homes, because this electoral process is a sham and they should not be accomplices of that mockery of Ortega.
Q. What options are left?
A: It is very easy to say this from the outside, but you have to keep resisting. The situation in Nicaragua is very difficult. The persecution, the perversion, the cruelty. But I always tell myself that dictatorships are not eternal, that they all have an end and that the bloody regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo will also have its own.