Interviews

The assault on private property extends across eight departments in the country. According to complaints received by the Nicaraguan Union of Agricultural Producers (UPANIC), more than 5,000 hectares of rural and urban lands are currently in the hands of armed groups that have seized them with the government’s consent.

Every time she looks at the photo of her only three sons, crowded into the back of a Police pick-up truck, Juana de la Rosa Lesage Guadamuz begins to cry. She cries because her boys are still prisoners. She cries because she misses them. She cries because she recalls the morning of July 11 when they were taken away.

Since the civic protests against the Nicaraguan government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo began in April, official media outlets have disqualified the demonstrations as an “attempted coup d’état by the right.” “Anyone who opposes the Sandinista Front or Daniel Ortega, is (categorized) as a rightist,” assures Mikel Espinosa, the former editor of the leading government website 19 Digital. He is now exiled in Costa Rica.

“The President should reconsider and sit down to think how not to take the country on the path to an economic debacle. An open political dialogue should be instituted, in which all the bases to provide stability to the country could be presented,” said Sergio Maltez.

Carlos admits he’s on the wrong side, and he repeats this realization five times during our conversation. ”I know I’m on the wrong side: I know it, and my wife knows it. It makes me ashamed,” he states. “I felt bad being in that plaza, and holding up a flag bathed in blood,” he adds.