Nicaraguans in Costa Rica Repudiated Ortega’s Sham Elections

Hundreds demonstrated in the streets of San Jose to denounce the voting that took place Sunday in Nicaragua and to demand free elections.

By Cindy Regidor (Confidencial)

HAVANA TIMES – “They forced us into exile, but they will not silence us,” the Nicaraguan exiles who marched in the center of San Jose, in Costa Rica, shouted in unison on the morning of Sunday, November 7. Costa Rica is the home of hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguan migrants over many decades and also the refugees that arrived after the outbreak of the sociopolitical crisis in Nicaragua in 2018.

Blue and white flags were waved in the Costa Rican capital, where hundreds gathered, in the surroundings of the La Merced Park. From there, they took off marching in repudiation of the elections without guarantees taking place Sunday in Nicaragua, and to shout slogans of freedom and against the Ortega-Murillo regime.

The demonstration was part of the Great Global March, a day of protests convoked by those who described the elections in Nicaragua as a “farce”, since they took plce without political competition and under the absolute control of the Ortega regime.

After starting the activity, the march was divided into two groups, one that left first and went to the Nicaraguan Embassy in the La California neighborhood. And the second, which ended in the Democracy Plaza.

“What’s happening today is a sham because they put all the presidential candidates in prison. The elections should be repeated when they release all the political prisoners and allow us to vote from abroad,” demanded Eliecer Lumbí, a Nicaraguan in Costa Rica who attended the activity. He was referring to the seven presidential hopefuls that the Ortega Murillo regime detained since last May, as part of the 39 new prisoners still in prison for political reasons, including civic leaders, journalists, businessmen, human rights defenders, and former diplomats.

“We are telling the people of Nicaragua: ‘stay home, that we, will make the noise from here.’ This is a demonstration calling for this electoral process and this regime to be declared illegitimate,” said Ana Quiros, of the Articulación de Movimientos Feministas of Nicaragua.

Participating in the march were the Movimiento Campesino, the Anti-Canal Movements, citizens of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, exiled university students, feminists’ groups, human rights defenders, humanitarian organizations that assist Nicaraguan refugees, as well as some Costa Rican politicians and citizens who accompanied the attendees as a sign of solidarity with the victims of the Nicaraguan state repression.

Participants of all ages and from different regions of Costa Rica attended the activity. “We have come to demonstrate so that the whole world knows that in Nicaragua these are not elections. We ask them not to recognize those elections. In Nicaragua human rights are violated. Yesterday there were many peasants imprisoned (in Nicaragua), just because they do not want to legitimize (the vote). Here we are in difficulties, but we are demonstrating,” said Francisca Ramirez, a rural leader, who arrived from Upala, Alajuela, with dozens of other Nicaraguan farmers who make up a camp where they have lived since they went into exile in 2018 due to the political persecution of the regime.

The Mothers of April also participated in the demonstration this Sunday. “We mothers demand justice for the blood of our children. It’s beyond belief that on those election ballots are the faces of the murderers of our children. We strongly repudiate the electoral circus being presented in Nicaragua today,” commented Yadira Cordoba, mother of Orlando Cordoba, a 15-year-old adolescent and one of the more than 300 victims of lethal violence of the Ortega repression in 2018 during the massive demonstrations against him.

“We demand freedom for political prisoners, respect for human rights and that the dictatorship does not continue to violate the fundamental freedoms of the Nicaraguan population,” exclaimed Braulio Abarca, a human rights defender exiled in Costa Rica and a member of the Nicaraguan Human Rights Collective Never More.

The march ended at midday. Those who stayed in the Democracy Plaza later attended the Pinolera Fair, located on one side of the plaza, where they could eat typical food and enjoy dances and artistic presentations by Nicaraguan artists.

In the demonstration there were abundant photographs of Nicaraguan political prisoners. Those in attendance demanded the release of the more than 150 people imprisoned by the Ortega regime.

With the contribution of Katherine Estrada.

Read more from Nicaragua here on Havana Times.