Personalities Show Support for “Stateless” Nicaraguans
Intellectuals from all over the world: “They are and will be Nicaraguans”
HAVANA TIMES – At least 480 intellectuals, artists, journalists, and politicians from around the world have signed a manifesto -entitled “They are and will be Nicaraguans”-, in which they express their solidarity with the more than 300 Nicaraguans whose nationality has been taken away by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
In the text, they detail some of the abuses and human rights violations committed by the dictatorship against Nicaraguan citizens, universities, and independent media.
They highlight that 317 Nicaraguans were stripped of their nationality in the span of a week, including writers Sergio Ramirez and Gioconda Belli, and recall that 222 political prisoners were released and exiled to the United States on February 9.
“We urge the international community to speak out and take an active role in all actions that may lead to the cessation of abuses and human rights violations committed by the Ortega-Murillo regime,” they emphasize.
“We also urge the Nicaraguan government to stop the repression against its people,” they conclude.
Among the signatories are Nobel Literature Prize winners Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru and Orhan Pamuk of Turkey; Princess of Asturias award winners Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt; writers Elena Poniatowska, Salman Rushdie, Michael Ondaatje, Jonathan Franzen, Samanta Schweblin, Junot Díaz, Rosa Montero, Muriel Barbery, Laura Restrepo, Margo Glantz, and Héctor Abad Faciolince.
Also signing the list are the outstanding photographer Susan Maiselas, who captured episodes of the Sandinista revolution; former Panamanian minister and singer-songwriter Rubén Blades; and journalists Carmen Aristegui, Leila Guerriero, Winston Manrique, Jon Lee Anderson, Lydia Cacho, Oscar Martínez, Javier Rodríguez Marcos, Martín Caparrós, Berna González Harbour and Juan Cruz.
Also present are the former presidents of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solís (2014-2018) and Carlos Alvarado Quesada (2018-2022).