Several decades ago, a thin, intelligent and dreamy 18-year-old girl came to the newspaper La Prensa, she was part of a generation of young rebels, writers and poets who looked at and admired Pedro Joaquín Chamorro and the most iconic newspaper in Nicaragua. The Press for her was a symbol of struggle and resistance against a ferocious dictatorship. This young woman, who had studied in Switzerland and England, and who was also proud to work at La Prensa, was Rosario Murillo, the deputy dictator and wife of Daniel Ortega.
More than 50 years later, Murillo has confiscated the newspaper where he worked, arrested three of its directors, including two children of the martyred Director Pedro Joaquín Chamorro (Cristiana Chamorro and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios).
The wonderful years
Murillo worked for almost a decade at La Prensa, for her these were the wonderful years, in those days she founded the Gradas cultural movement together with poets, musicians and painters, she worked and was educated alongside Pedro Joaquín Chamorro and many people began to call for the first time poet. This week the vice dictator expressed herself in her beloved diary in this way: “those places that have been dens for plotting crimes against humanity are now centers for profound spirituality” “the past will not return,” Murillo said after confiscating the property and announcing the construction of the José Coronel Urtecho cultural center. She also explained that the confiscation (prohibited in article 44 of the Political Constitution of Nicaragua) is a sign of “true Christianity, fraternity, brotherhood, solidarity and joy.”
Although Murillo’s words speak of peace and spirituality, the truth is that she has personally unleashed an infernal hunt against freedom of the press and religious freedom. Today Nicaragua is the only country in Latin America where there is not a single printed newspaper, 1,600 NGOs have been confiscated, there are more than 190 political prisoners, 10 religious arrested and pressure continues to banish Monsignor Rolando Álvarez from his homeland.
Related article: Regime completes assault on La Prensa and sets up a cultural center in its facilities
The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) raised its voice in condemnation of the Nicaraguan dictatorship for the “consummation of the robbery and dismantling of the La Prensa facilities, which corroborates the evident official persecution against independent journalism in that country.” Likewise, the IAPA reiterated its condemnation of the forced exile of more than 120 journalists, demanding the return of the facilities to La Prensa, Confidencial and 100% Noticias, the release of journalists Miguel Mora, Miguel Mendoza and Jaime Arellano, as well as the 3 directors of The Press.
It hurts what happened in the newspaper La Prensa, after a year of illegal occupation of its headquarters, this week the robbery of its facilities valued at 10 million dollars was consummated. By forcibly ripping out the iconic letters from La Prensa, the dictatorship thought it was erasing 96 years of history and thought that it was burying the Nicaraguan newspaper, when in reality what it did was sow a seed, the seed of hope and freedom. Nicaragua will be a Republic again.
*The author was a journalist for La Prensa and Nicaraguan ambassador to the OAS.