Felix Maradiaga Returns to Nicaragua: “I Came to Stay”
The political scientist and director of IEEPP arrived in the afternoon amid a police siege of the airport
“I come to contribute to the work of healing the wounds, but also to build democratic alternatives for Nicaragua,” Maradiaga said.
By Maynor Salazar (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – The first thing Felix Maradiaga did when he stepped on Nicaraguan soil was to sing the national anthem. In front of acquaintances, friends and media he stood firm, raised his hand to his chest and sang the sacred notes with lots of emotion.
The opposition politician and director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Public Policies (IEEPP) returned to Nicaragua on Monday afternoon, September 16, after a year of forced exile, due to the political persecution of the Ortega-Murillo government, which accused him of financing terrorism and drug trafficking.
“I feel excited. It has felt like when a child is torn from his mother. I had to live a second exile in my life, as has happened with many Nicaraguans,” Maradiaga told the media.
He said that his stay outside the country was “hard.” He also said he had mixed feeling because he had wanted to return to a Nicaragua with freedoms and where journalists could practice their profession without risking their lives, and where university students could enter their campuses without fear.
“Many Nicaraguans knew the first Sandinista dictatorship and I remember in my teens those bitter times of war in the 80s. This second exile of just over a year was extremely hard. I come to join the work that many people are doing. I come to contribute to the work of healing wounds, but also to build democratic alternatives for Nicaragua,” said the political scientist.
Maradiaga was accused by the dictatorship of running a criminal and terrorist network during the protests of the civic rebellion. On September 23, 2018, Ortega’s justice system issued an arrest warrant against him under the action of “financing drug trafficking mafias,” as well as attributing the crimes of terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime.
Before, during and after the arrival of Maradiaga, the Managua airport was besieged by riot police. His acquaintances feared that the Ortega dictatorship would not let him enter or capture him immediately after leaving the airport terminal.
After speaking with the media, Maradiaga greeted members of the Civic Alliance and the Blue and White National Unity movement (UNAB). Upon leaving in a private vehicle, the IEEPP director was besieged by a police patrol that stopped following him kilometers after leaving the airport.
“I came to stay; I will not allow anyone to make me leave. I have no guarantee (in terms of security), that I want to say clearly. I am aware of what I can face. I do not want this return to be used as a way to create the illusion of a false normality. Nothing is normal in Nicaragua,” he concluded.
I return with my head up high
Prior to his arrival, Maradiaga published a letter assuring that he was returning with “his head up high.” “This announcement is consistent with the position I hold since the beginning of my forced exiled. I always said that my departure from Nicaragua would be temporary and with the sole purpose of continuing my civic and human rights struggle, from the international arena,” Maradiaga said in the city of Miami. “I have done everything in my power to let the world know what is happening in Nicaragua and for the international community to exert pressure for a peaceful transition towards democracy. It has been an arduous and involved much team work, along with many people.”
He added: “Now I feel that I must return to the trench of civic struggle within Nicaragua, as I have been doing for more than a decade, before the Sandinista judicial system initiated a political persecution against me. It is a decision I have made accompanied by a lot of prayer and reflection with my family, guided by the conviction that no tyranny can rob me of the right to live and work for the nation I love. Nicaragua is my homeland. As a Nicaraguan citizen that I am, I will make use of my constitutional right to enter and leave my country when I deem it convenient,” said Maradiaga.
This is my personal opinion. To all the REAL NICARAGUANS who love their country. You should follow this man, “Felix Maradiaga” who is a real loving man for his mother country. Someone who would really make a change for the better of all Nicaraguan people.
Felix Maradiaga represent to Nicaragua what Juan Guaido for Venezuela. His role in Nicaragua was since 2007 since the Sandinista Party return to power after 16 years of brutal corruption of the Liberal party robing the Nicaraguan people Millions of dollars and creating a total chaos. Where the elite live very well and the poor suffer the most. Felix Maradiaga was a recruit from the foreign power to act in the country and to stablish a non-profit organization with the purpose to act as mechanism to organizes, finance group of young mind to brain wash them with purpose to be ready to act as destabilizing force. The recruitment for young and influential young people in universities. His role was to ignite the young population to turn against the government and to cause a insurgency to destroy the Sandinista government and stablish Felix Maradiaga as a presidential candidate to unify the Liberals that suffer from division of power. Maradiaga is the man to do the dirty job for the people behind the regimen change. This article is financed by the same people who finance Mr. Maradiaga from a remote office in Costa Rica like in the 1980s Honduras and Costa Rica was the satellites countries as a military base to launch military attack. in 2019 there is not military attack anymore but, more like ciber psychological warfare with the help of the media. What happen in 2018 in Nicaragua was a clear example of what is capable of controlling the masses by the media. There is no political party in Nicaragua there is only one problem and it is the biggest. Corruption at all levels the Nicaraguan system is a corrupted system that the people in power are refusing to give back to the people in Nicaragua. In that group are included all the parties including the opposition of the Sandinistas, the sandinistas party and all the privilege family that hold the power and which to comeback to power to continue robing the people. Change the govertment of Nicaragua is not necessary going to benefit the poor population. Instead is going to benefit the same families that rule Nicaragua for centuries and give the natural resources to the foreign power that benefit 100% in other world the ruling families are happy if they get bone while the foreign take the whole cow. Example: Nicaragua rank #14 in the world of producer of gold and the Canadian companies take 98% of the gold and 2% goes to Nicaragua. That is the system that create poor my friends. Nicaragua is not poor. Nicaragua has too many leaches that bleed the poor. Leave my people go that no one leave this life a live and you cant take nothing with you.
too many common ambitious people in Nicaragua that sell their brothers for just bones.
Thank you