2023-04-23 10:48:57
Courage. Fernando Chamorro: “We are doing journalism for the future of justice.” Photo: diffusion
Fernando Chamorro comments, in an interview with the ‘4D’ program of LR+, the digital channel of La República, about the violation of human rights in the government of the dictator Daniel Ortega, without a firm statement having been made in the region in this regard. More than 150 journalists live in exile due to the criminalization of freedom of opinion and expression.
—How is the foreign policy of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship? Where is it going now that China has become a topical charm in Latin America?
—The foreign policy of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship it went from a time of considerable complacency and very diverse relations, which it has maintained until 2018, to one of isolation on the one hand and of reorientation towards a close alliance with Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, but also with a certain projection to Latin American countries, especially Central America. Before 2018, Nicaragua had collaborative relations with the OAS and the OAS policy was highly criticized because, to a certain extent, it endorsed the 2016 election, Ortega’s last re-election in which he gave the vice presidency to his wife, Rosario Murillo. , much like the 2021 election in which political competition was eliminated. All that changed with the human rights crisis. Ortega breaks with the OAS; he begins to expel ambassadors or declare them unwelcome; and, in parallel, he strengthens an alliance that he already had before with Cuba and Venezuela, and later with China and Russia. He breaks relations with Taiwan, embraces China with the expectation that it will give him a lot of economic support, something that has not been the case to this day. But there is something that is little known and it is the presence of Nicaraguan diplomacy in Central America. Our neighbors—with the exception of Costa Rica—Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala do not usually condemn Ortega in international forums, and that has to do with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, on which they all depend, and other factors.
—What happens with the Nicaraguan public opinion in relation to the heroes of Sandinismo of other times, to support what they support?
—It is very difficult to answer. The Sandinista revolution, the one that overthrew Somoza, is a phenomenon that occurred 40 years ago and ended in 1990. And yes, in the popular imagination there are heroes, some who died like in a tragic comedy, such is the case of Eden Pastora, who was a hero of that revolution, but in the end it became almost the symbol of the paramilitaries that were going to repress the civic protest. Others like Hugo Torres, who died in jail, a retired general, a guerrilla fighter who freed Ortega from jail in 1974 and Tomás Borge in 1978. It is an issue on which there is no consensus. On the other hand, public opinion cannot express itself, there is a criminalization of freedom of opinion and expression.
“Dictatorship of its kind”
—How is the daily life of a Nicaraguan citizen from the economic point of view?
—This is a sui generis dictatorship in the sense that it differs from Cuba because it is not a state economy, it is an open private economy. And it differs from that of Venezuela because Ortega did not promote nationalizations or socialist projects in the economy. The economy depends on the large, medium and small private sector, mainly on its export opening. Secondly, of the family remittances that today are more than 3 billion dollars, that is equivalent to almost 20% of the Gross Domestic Product. And, on the other hand, a policy of extortion to the private sector for the tax aspect. So, there is a certain macroeconomic normality, which the Monetary Fund recognizes, and says: “Well, Nicaragua works, there are exports, there are transactions in the banks. What there is not are investments, there is no recovery of quality employment, there is impoverishment, but there is no collapse of the economy, there is no scarcity”. Businessmen are very cautiously silent because they are all afraid that this situation could change and a wave of confiscations could come. In fact, there have already been more than 250 properties, some agricultural, some owned by the media, including the one I run, Confidencial, the newspaper La Prensa and Cien por Cento Noticias, that have been confiscated.
Dictators. Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, decided to expel and remove the nationality of the opposition leaders. Photo: EFE
—And isn’t this curious element in Nicaragua the one that prevents some countries from having a decisive position?
—At least for the Central American environment it is the key variable. Costa Rica lives in fear that a blockade of regional trade could take place in Nicaragua. The other side of this apparent normality of mediocre economic growth is massive migration. In recent years, more than 600,000 people have emigrated mainly to Costa Rica and the United States because they see no future for the country. Most of them initially left due to political persecution, for fear of being arrested. Now they are leaving because they do not see a future for the country.
—What does it mean to do journalism today in Nicaragua?
—Not only have I been in exile for almost two years, but I have been stripped of my Nicaraguan nationality along with more than 300 other citizens. Among them we are at least 11 journalists. And more than 12 journalists were in the Chipote prison for more than 600 days. We are more than 150 journalists in exile. We have reorganized through digital platforms. In an hour I am going to produce a radio program in Nicaragua called ‘Confidencial Radio’, and on Sunday I am going to produce my television program; this week they are censored. The contents are distributed through social networks, thanks to which we can still defeat censorship and compete with the misinformation that is generated.
“How do you cover the facts?”
—It’s something I can’t talk about in detail because my first rule is to protect my sources and we have to protect the sources in Nicaragua. My goal is to report in Nicaragua and not in the exile bubble in Costa Rica. If I, as a journalist, get up every morning and open my WhatsApp, which gives me an exaggerated and distorted world of reality, I need sources and, furthermore, sources within the Government, people who exhibit the enormous economic and political malaise that exists In Nicaragua. They must be cultivated, trust must be generated and, above all, secure channels of communication must be created. Well, we are doing journalism to sow truth, for the future of justice, and in that I must say that we work very closely with the families of the victims of repression and also with international human rights organizations. But we cover everything that the official press does not say. Because there is another reality in Nicaragua, there is another co-opted press that cannot talk about issues of public interest, and there is an official press that is managed by the sons of Ortega and Murillo, who manage four television channels, several stations and Internet portals that are not owned by the State or the party, belong to the Ortega-Murillo family, run as a private business.
—How to contribute to the fall of this dictatorship? Is the possibility that the Ortega y Murillo regime will fall or is it consolidating?
—It is impossible to make forecasts. The only thing I can say is that this dictatorship is not sustainable in the long term, it is a medium-term crisis, the dictatorship is not going to fall under its own weight. I think it requires two things: extraordinary external pressure in line with the level of repression that the regime imposes on the country. what do I want to say with that? Total isolation and close channels of collaboration with the regime that exist in different international institutions; and that the justice processes be opened. It has already been said that it can be opened by universal Justice, even in the Court of The Hague. Ortega and Murillo will never change, but the 500 generals, magistrates, ministers, that chain of command that today accompanies the regime and that believes that it can prolong this mandate, to turn this dictatorship into a dynasty in which Ortega would hand over the power to his wife or a child, he has to be convinced that there is no way out and that the only way out is a collapse like the one that the Somoza dictatorship had in 1979, in another context, in a political-military insurrection, but also in a great international and national alliance.
A few days ago, it was learned that Chile will take the corresponding measures to provide help to opponents of the Government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. Photo: composition LR/AFP
“Not a word from China”
—China is still interested in building a parallel canal through Nicaragua?
—China He has never declared an official intention on that project that was promoted by a Chinese businessman, who possibly had some ties to elements of the Chinese state, but officially he was something like a filibuster, a boy scout who was going to explore a project. He did very badly, his companies went bankrupt, they never had credibility. Daniel Ortega says: “Now that the People’s Republic of China has restored relations, the channel returns.” But China has never said a word.
“Ortega-Murillo have no ideology, they are pragmatic”
—Is the distance from the Vatican a religious issue? Is some heterodox religious thinking developing at the top of Nicaraguan power?
—I don’t think the Ortega-Murillo leadership has an ideology, in that sense they are pragmatic, they are in power for power’s sake. If the Vatican or the Catholic Church endorsed this regime, they would simply be more Catholic than anyone else. There are those who say that the regime is developing an anti-Christian, anti-religious position, I don’t believe that, there is political pragmatism. Several bishops, like Silvio Báez, are in exile today, or Bishop Rolando Álvarez who is in prison, and many priests are in exile. It is the reaction of this government to a Church that does not submit to and supports human rights, that rejects the manipulation of the regime’s religion.
—Are there still people in Nicaragua who support the regime?
—There is a support machinery. The Sandinista Front Party is a reality that is organized at the national level, which controls the entire state apparatus. That means a state of advantages, of perks, not only for the public official, but for the family that does business… That represents 15% to 20% of the electorate. Six or seven years ago, the regime of Ortega It came to have a political majority, without fraud it could easily have 50% or 56% support, it has had a huge loss, but it has support. Obviously, there are fanatical, ideologized sectors, and there is also the personality cult of Ortega and Murillo, who have that permanent repetition that everything that is obtained in Nicaragua is thanks to a social service… What can we do? Inform, keep Nicaragua on the radar of public opinion, tell stories and under no circumstances accept the normalization of the dictatorship.
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