Ortega prohibits political references at concerts in Nicaragua

Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have given another twist to the authoritarian regime they impose in Nicaragua: the Ministry of the Interior (MINT) published this Tuesday a regulation to authorize, control and monitor any “public artistic activity, event or show” in the country Central American, especially concerts by international artists, to avoid political references. The Ministerial Agreement 05-2024, published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta, establishes that the new guideline will apply to all “natural and legal persons, national and other nationalities” who are dedicated within Nicaragua “to the production, promotion and organization” of shows public artistic. Emulating what they have done to control the NGOs that they have not decapitated, the MINT mandates the creation of a “registry of producers, promoters and organizers of activities, events and public artistic performances.”

This registry will be – like that of non-governmental organizations – controlled by the MINT. In the case of NGOs, the requirements to register and then maintain operations become cumbersome: a bureaucracy that is almost impossible to comply with, to the point that dozens decide to cease activities. The Ortega and Murillo regime alleges that with this registry of producers of shows national and international, it seeks to “guarantee citizen and State security and internal order in the national territory.”

The MINT attributed several powers, the main one being “authorizing” the carrying out of any “activity, event or public spectacle that meets certain requirements.” “Failure to comply with the provisions of the regulations” would result in an infraction and a punishment that, for now, is not detailed.

Political control even at concerts

Although after the sociopolitical crisis of 2018, concerts by international artists were almost completely reduced, in recent years the industry has timidly reactivated. In March 2023, the female musical group from Mexico Pandora gave a concert in Managua. The event was promoted and supported by official propaganda.

However, as the show was going on, the singers sang the anthem in fact of Nicaragua: Nicaragua Nicaraguan, by Carlos Mejía Godoy, one of the main artists who composed the soundtrack of the Sandinista revolution and the protests of April 2018, and who is also exiled in the United States for his criticism of the Ortega-Murillos.

At the end of Mejía Godoy’s song, attendees shouted “Long live Nicaragua free!”, one of the protest cries banned by the regime. At the same time, the members of the group raised the country’s also prohibited blue and white flag on stage. Among the attendees was Camila Ortega Murillo, daughter of the presidential couple, who became very uncomfortable with the performance of the song and the scream.

In addition, Pandora has a very strong connection with Nicaragua: the group has performed and launched to stardom the songs of Hernaldo Zúñiga, one of the country’s unavoidable singer-songwriters and a critic of the Sandinista regime. After the concert, Zúñiga, who lives in Mexico, wrote on his

“Pandora and Flans, as a gesture of gratitude, last Saturday at a concert they offered in Managua they sang the country’s other National Anthem, the song by Carlos Mejía Godoy, Nicaragua Nicaraguanalso waving our flag,” insisted the author of How are you doing, honey. Other international artists have canceled concerts in Nicaragua due to the sociopolitical situation, something that some opponents have celebrated.

National musicians censored and exiled

This new ban further expands censorship on the artistic level in Nicaragua. In April 2022, the regime launched a hunt against national musicians and producers: arrests, banishments and deportations of young, alternative and very popular artists, who since 2018 have criticized the repression and human rights violations committed through their music. by police and paramilitaries at the service of the Ortega-Murillo.

From that point on, a plethora of musicians fled into exile after the police sent a circular to bar owners, prohibiting them from holding concerts with “several bands.” Since then, in Nicaragua – a country with a very lively historical musical, artistic and poetic production – concerts have not been held, with the exception of certain bands that support and worship the regime.

Currently, Nicaraguan musicians and bands are reinventing themselves in exile in Costa Rica and Spain in very complicated economic and working conditions. While in Nicaragua what abounds are musical bands that write pieces related to the government or do not issue any criticism.

“The cultural scene inside Nicaragua basically no longer exists. With this regulation we now seek to control even what international artists say on stage. It is a brutal blow against culture and only reminds me of the persecution of Pol Pot in Cambodia. The only culture allowed is the one that bows its head to the dictatorship,” said the singer-songwriter.

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