Nicaragua: “I Didn’t Think My Opinions Represented Danger”
says retired professor Freddy Quezada
The philosopher and sociologist was in prison for ten months for expressing his opinion on social media. “I’m going to keep doing it,” he says
HAVANA TIMES – “I was betrayed by trust, my trust in believing that a retired professor didn’t represent a significant danger to them,” admits academic Freddy Quezada, 66, imprisoned by the Daniel Ortega-Rosario Murillo dictatorship and now exiled to Guatemala along with 134 other former political prisoners.
Quezada continued: “I thought that perhaps because I had taught many of the people who run those cyber-espionage centers, somehow, out of affection or respect they might have for me, or because I’m a retired man, they wouldn’t think I represented a danger. But I was betrayed by that belief because it didn’t turn out that way.”
Quezada, who is a philosopher, sociologist, and former university professor, was arrested on November 30, 2023. The final straw that put him in the dictatorship’s sights was “liking” a post on X, formerly Twitter, which mentioned the mobilization power that the arrival of Sheyniss Palacios, the Nicaraguan who had just been crowned Miss Universe, could have.
Quezada described that the post said that if Miss Universe returned, there would probably be mobilizations of large numbers of people in Nicaragua. “I liked the idea of the young man who talked about the possibility of organizing thousands of people in a matter of hours. I don’t know and I don’t remember his name, and I gave him a like. They presented that to me as evidence,” he said.
Quezada says he believes that upon reviewing his profile, the regime realized that he used social media to share news, criticisms of the Ortega government, and opinions –sometimes with humor–, and that that was enough to get him arrested.
“My social media posts were a combination of opinions –using my clear right [of expression]– against the government and other pages that are exclusively academic, talking about social science or involving philosophical commentary that perhaps the same people who monitored or persecuted me didn’t even understand,” says Quezada.
An academic group Quezada was part of on WhatsApp was also the subject of investigation when he was initially taken to the District III police station in Managua. “They started questioning me, saying this was a conspiracy group. I denied it. And after that, they transferred me to La Modelo [the men’s prison],” he recalls.
The former professor’s trial took place inside the prison, with charges of “disturbing the public order and inciting hatred and violence.” The hearings were conducted through screens. Despite his innocence, Quezada decided to accept the charges, because in his opinion it was a “judicial charade” that lacked legality.
“I told them that the charges against me were charges attributed to drunks and prostitutes… and that those folks are only held three days in jail while they were going to condemn me,” he says.
After almost ten months in prison, Professor Freddy Quezada claims that he never was told what his sentence was.
In 2018, Quezada was fired from the state-run National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua) for showing solidarity with students demonstrating against the Ortega regime and for criticizing the use of force by the State. He is a sharp critic of the Ortega government on his social media, where he signs as “Uliteo.”
Treatment while in prison
The first days in prison were the hardest, Quezada confessed in a post he shared on his Facebook page after his release. “It’s very hard. That’s usually the time to create some tricks to keep your mental balance and not succumb to despair. Everyone literally invents their own tricks,” he wrote.
The professor decided to take off his underwear and draw a pair of eyes, a nose and a mouth on it with a piece of plaster he found in his cell so that he would “have someone to talk to” during his first days in prison.
“’What else could be done?,’ I asked my underwear. ‘Why, after six years, has the dictatorship in Nicaragua, [having committed] so many abuses, not yet fallen?’” Quezada said he remembered the movie “The Castaway,” in which Tom Hanks talked to a ball he christened “Wilson.”
As the months passed in prison, Quezada says he received “benefits” that may have been related to his being an older adult. Unlike other prisoners, he was not interrogated. He was provided with a fan, a table and a chair. And during the last three months before being released and expelled, he received periodic medical assistance.
“I started getting visits three times a week to take my vital signs: blood pressure, body temperature and everything. I got medicine for two chronic illnesses I have, one in my eyes and also my prostate,” reports Quezada, adding that he was photographed during all these check-ups.
“In prison I would often talk with the evangelical pastors of Puerta de la Montaña [Mountain Gateway] who were imprisoned in December 2023. They would get news of negotiations that were taking place for their release,” recalls Quezada. “We constantly speculated about the month in which the release might occur as the fruit of those negotiations. Some of us thought we were going to be released in May because we saw a series of small signs… [but] we actually got out in September. ”
He will not give up expressing his opinions
The former academic is very grateful to be free, despite being banished. “You can never compare being expelled, banished or denationalized with being in prison. This is a major advance [to be free even outside Nicaragua],” he says.
“It’s not the same being in prison where you’re running around like a rat on a wheel. And you’re just taking orders, saying ‘yes, sir’ to the jailers and the authorities. Anything you can do on the outside is an improvement. That’s freedom. It’s not complete freedom, but it’s freedom…. But the fact is you have to separate that from the feeling of sovereignty. Because they’ve hurt you. You’ve been humiliated and trampled on and violated,” admits Quezada.
The teacher of many generations of Nicaraguan journalists and sociologists plans to move to the United States where he has relatives. Professor Freddy Quezada says that he will continue to use social media to share his opinions and reflections about the topics on which he considers himself an expert.
“I have every right to express opinions, and I will continue to do so,” he emphasizes.