According to Nicaraguan advocates, the human rights situation in the country is the worst that it’s been for the past thirty years. A review conducted by Confidencial shows that of the thirty articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at least 18 have been repeatedly violated by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

Nicaragua has become an unsafe country for any citizen who protests and makes use of the right to free expression. Athletes who have represented Nicaragua and won medals in important international competitions are now victims of harassment, threats and physical aggression.

University leader Edwin Carcache Davile prayed an Our Father and a Hail Mary. The cameras of the official media outlets focused on him all the time. Although guarded by several officers armed with AK47, he was not intimidated, and neither were the rest of the accused in the courtroom. They sang the National Anthem and at the end Carcache cried out a “be strong Nicaragua.”

Xiamara Diaz juggles her resources in order to keep afloat her restaurant, the Garden Café, located in Granada. This city, the colonial jewel of Nicaragua, has suffered a severe economic blow due to the political crisis. Diaz has had to adjust to the new reality of a country that’s no longer receiving foreign tourists, and in addition has seen a downturn in local consumption.

During part of his life, Nicaragua was one of the obsessions of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The Nobel Prize Winner not only saw himself narrating the Assault to the National Palace by the Sandinista guerrilla, but was also involved with the Sandinista Revolution in the eighties. Thirty-nine years after the revolutionary victory, what is happening in that volcanic country located in the waist of Latin America?

Different social sectors that oppose Daniel Ortega’s dictatorship, including the Civic Alliance and the Articulation of Social Movements, have decided to join forces and create a “common front” called “Blue and White National Unity”, putting aside their differences about how to tackle the current socio-political crisis that has taken over the country.

During the crisis, at least five have fallen victim to government repression. However, this isn’t a new form of repression for Ortega’s government, it is a long-standing practice which began when Daniel Ortega came into office in 2007. This is a recounting of the most recent foreign journalists’ cases, since the civic rebellion began in April.

  Some students attended classes forced by their parents or for fear of reprisals. Others have declared themselves in student

Both women shared the same university halls, they both took to the streets ever since the first day of protests in Managua in April; by a quirk of fate, they are both now working in the struggle for university independence, justice, human rights and real democracy in Nicaragua.