Countdown to My Asylum Ruling
By Michelle Quezada
HAVANA TIMES – I’m a few days away from my meeting with Norway’s Immigration Board, to appeal the negative decision made in my asylum case. It’s been a year and six months of fighting uncertainty and anxiety, and I’ll finally have a chance to be heard once again.
My life in forced exile has been a rollercoaster of emotions. My worry that I’ll be sent back to Nicaragua and be locked up or killed, is present every day, and it’s a fear that eats away at me. Knowing that the day is coming when I finally know what will happen with my life, fills me with so many feelings that I can’t put into words.
It’s been three years now since my generation and the whole of Nicaragua woke up and we rose up against Nicaragua’s Dictatorship, but repression continues. We have no freedom of speech and we also don’t have freedom of the press.
The Ortega-Murillo regime continues to strengthen its dictatorship and is clinging on to stay in power for a long time in the future. The November 2021 elections will be a total fraud, and this has been confirmed by all of the regime’s actions, with its headquarters in its residence/office in the El Carmen neighborhood, in Managua.
Personally, it affects me and other exiles a great deal, as we clearly won’t be able to go back to Nicaragua, as we know what our fate will be if we do.
Returning safely to Nicaragua is not an option. We are all familiar with the cases of people who have gone back and are now waiting for trial. An example is political prisoner Cristian David Meneses Machado, originally from Masaya, who was unfairly sentenced to 48 years in prison after having returned from exile in Costa Rica.
The police state, kidnappings, and paramilitary resurgence are clear signs that things won’t change in Nicaragua, this year.
My family in Nicaragua who live at home as if it were a prison have been tormented by the regime, every day.
A few days away from my last chance to try and rebuild what the regime took from me is very close and I won’t lose faith that Norway will grant me protection. So, I can finally feel safe from the dictatorship and know it won’t hurt me anymore.
I have tried to keep calm, but I am still filled with sadness and impotence when I see all of the atrocities that the regime carries out daily in my beloved Nicaragua.
Whatever happens, they won’t be able to silence me, and I’ll continue to denounce Ortega’s dictatorship and all of his crimes. I will continue to protest any way that I can, because I want a Nicaragua free from a dictatorship. We Nicaraguans deserve Justice and Freedom.