Poet Ernesto Cardenal Dies at 95

His health was fragile due to his advanced age. Latin America has lost one of its most powerful poets

By Wilfredo Miranda Aburto  (Confidencial)

HAVANA TIMES – Poet Ernesto Cardenal died on Sunday afternoon in Managua at 95 years of age, his personal assistant Luz Marina Acosta confirmed to Confidencial. The priest suffered from heart and kidney problems. Latin America has lost one of its most powerful poets, and Nicaragua its greatest literary reference after Ruben Darío.

“I am a poet, priest and revolutionary,” Cardenal defined himself in 2012. Back in 1983 he was admonished by Pope John Paul II for making a revolution that, years later, he said was “kidnapped and betrayed” by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

Cardenal broke with the Sandinista Front in 1994 and described as a “dictatorship” the past administration of his former companions in struggle.

During the last years of his life, Ernesto Cardenal had a very fragile health due to his advanced age. However, he never stopped reading, writing and denouncing the regime of Ortega Murillo.

Cardenal, born in the colonial city of Granada in 1925, was a poet and rebel forever. His essence poured into his verses: “Epigrams”, his restlessness about God, the revolutionary spirit in his poems against the Somoza dictatorship, his psalms, his conviction for social justice, and his famous “Prayer for Marilyn Monroe. ” 

[Editor’s Note: We will have a more complete article on Monday.]