Belgians with Ties to Nicaragua Call for Release of Political Prisoners

 

From Confidencial

HAVANA TIMES – “We have clearly verified that you turned your back on the ideals for which we supported you in the past,” state a long list of Belgians who have been supporting the Sandinistas and the people of Nicaragua for decades. They wrote an open letter to President Daniel Ortega.

 

Mr. Daniel Ortega
Managua Nicaragua
Open letter
Brussels, February 8, 2019

Mr. President,

We are activists, ex-volunteers for development cooperation and heads of associations and non-governmental organizations with different political and philosophical views.

The earthquake of December 23, 1972 [in Managua] was for many of us the beginning of a commitment alongside the Sandinista National Liberation Front. After the victorious insurrection of July 1979, we maintained our support during the low intensity war that the US government imposed on you until the country was exhausted which led to the defeat of the FSLN in the elections of February 1990.

Throughout that period, in the fields and alongside you, in Belgium as in the world, many “internationalists” committed themselves, some even paid the price with their lives, to defend revolutionary Nicaragua. It was a time when the enemies, the Contras, shouted “Be a patriot, kill an internationalist!”.

After the terrible hurricanes Juana in 1988 and Mitch in 1998, we continued to be in solidarity with the suffering population, through reconstruction projects in which we are involved.

We accompanied your struggle for the return to power of the 1979 ideals. In November 2006, the FSLN’s electoral victory, in a totally new context, was for many of us the possible source of new hope. We then had different views about the policy carried out [by your government] during the past 12 years.

However, since April 2018, and the unleashing of the terror policy against all those who oppose the unilateral decisions of the Presidency, we are stunned. We no longer recognize the Nicaragua we met, to which we devoted time and energy, and do not understand the reasons for this radical change in policy.

If we write to you today it is because we are outraged. We can only confirm that you turned your back on the ideals for which we supported you in the past. How could a man who was the embodiment of this popular force, who spent 7 years in the Somoza dungeons, and who carried within himself the values ??of democracy, social justice and freedom, be able to separate himself from the people who claim those values today?

Like many others, we trusted you. Now, how can we explain the reasons that motivate you to follow the footsteps of your enemy of yesterday? How can we explain, when we hear the cries of those who denounce the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, that you, once so close to the people, do not seem to hear?

Several hundred people were killed by paramilitaries who were not prosecuted or neutralized. Thousands of people, mainly students, were imprisoned, without respecting the constitutional guarantees or judicial procedures, under the unfounded accusation of “terrorism”, for having expressed their disagreement against your policy. Among them, a Belgian national, Amaya Eva Coppens, daughter of one of our internationalist comrades, who committed himself like us to the popular Nicaragua in the 80s. In all honesty, we must recognize that Amaya’s fight is very similar to the one we carried back then against the [Somoza] dictatorship, the economic power of big capital and US imperialism.

In the name of this struggle that we carry out at your side, we urge you to return to the ideals of Sandino, Rigoberto López Pérez and Carlos Fonseca’s FSLN. The essence and dignity of the revolution are not only reflected in its objectives, but also in its methods, what the history of revolutionary processes taught repeatedly.

Out of respect for your career, in the name of the solidarity we have shown with strength and vigor in the past, we launch this solemn call to act in favor of a way out of crisis in accordance with the precepts of a Rule of Law that emanates from the Constitution of 1987, to human rights and fundamental freedoms.

In this context, in the name of everything that united us and that we recall above, we ask you to intervene and order the immediate release of our Belgian compatriot Amaya Eva Coppens and of all the other persons imprisoned without reason and without respect for the procedures of the defense. We demand, for those people who are still being processed, a fair and dignified trial, as well as the prosecution within the framework of the law, of the murderous gangs that have operated with impunity for more than 9 months.

Hoping to be read, heard and understood by you, we say goodbye, Mr. President, with a restless and vigilant greeting.

Signed (in alphabetical order):

France ARETS – Presidenta de CRACPE, ex brigadista de los FGTBistas para Nicaragua.
Marie-Hélène BAGUETTE – Profesora y solidaria con el pueblo de Nicaragua.
Bernadette BAILLEUX – ex Miembro Comité Nicaragua de Lovaina-la-Nueva (entre otros). Varias estancias como brigadista.

Download the open letter here.