Bulldozing Our Rights in Nicaragua
“The tracks of the abuses will remain forever, far beyond any sign saying, “CONFIDENCIAL was here!”
By Edgar Tijerino (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – Is what we’re seeing a careful plan to destroy the values of this unfortunate country? Confiscations exhibited as trophies of impunity and injustice. The obvious aim is to leave no stone standing. For every tyranny, the “art” of demolishing citizen’s rights is an essential task. It’s necessary for it to sustain itself against wills, efforts, winds of change and liberating tides.
So, here we have the cases of Confidencial and 100% Noticias. Two escape valves for truth in information, a stance that one government-allied “journalist” has called terrorist. Where might you this kid have studied? Immersed – perhaps happily – in a submission that will affect your personal formation drastically.
That which used to be the Confidencial offices is now painted in resplendent fuchsia, [VP Murillo’s favorite color] but the color doesn’t conceal the brutal affront. The tracks of the abuses will remain forever, far beyond any sign that might say, “Confidencial was here!”
That will never come to pass. Carlos Fernando and his courageous and efficient supporting team have demonstrated that their permanence in the struggle is guaranteed. They maintain their true commitment to the immense majority of Nicaraguans who battle to shape another country. The regime can’t make them kneel, much less weaken their consciences or erode their patriotic work. They continue informing about all the arbitrary abuses that multiply implacably. Carlos Fernando’s ability to reach people has multiplied, while he fights tirelessly, just as his indomitable father did.
To the work Carlos Fernando has developed with Confidencial, Esta Semana, and Esta Noche, he’s now added another space. This journalist who scores highest in popular acceptance, is now present in Radio Corporacion’s news program Doce en punto [Twelve noon exactly]. He also has a special program every Thursday, over the same widely heard station. How has this growth of Carlos and “his troop” been possible amid so many mountains of difficulties? Ahhh… because of the respect that’s earned by honesty, courage and truthfulness.
Amid so many failed attempts to dig out of their ever-deeper hole, the “bulldozer” for demolishing rights won’t stop. 100% Noticias, Miguel Mora’s news station, is another media outlet that’s been absorbing blows for a long time. His support team, like Carlos’, hasn’t backed down.
They may take over their location, and slather make-up over it, but the essence of 100%, with Veronica, Lucia, Leticia, remain intact. They persist at the service of their widespread audience, strengthening hopes.
Society can’t remain indifferent to what leaps into view. It observes, analyzes and reaches conclusions. The demolition company won’t be able to subdue this people, who remain in active struggle. Those who consistently make their rejection of a terribly damaging system felt. Given the necessary conditions, the regime can’t – nor could they ever – survive in elections. They know it, and they’re not sleeping.
Three years later, the crisis is still there, without their being able to resolve it. It’s no longer a matter of governing from below to erode Doña Violeta’s government, as they set out to do in 1990. Now they’re generating a chaos that’s impossible to control.
What’s been the most impressive thing in the middle of this onslaught of extreme abuses aimed at intimidating? It’s the fact that combative journalism hasn’t weakened in their pro-nation mission. The opposition journalists, fully committed to the present and the future, are putting their energies together. They’re following in the footsteps of all the released prisoners who’ve come out of jail without giving an inch. They’re also following the footsteps of those who are still unjustly in prison, but send us messages with their Spartan steadfastness.
The tyranny hasn’t been able to keep all the arbitrary abuses they commit day by day from being unmasked. The journalists expose them with precision before the naked eye, for the public’s due judgement. As Cioran the Roman says in his Breviary of the Vanquished: “The moans of those in mystic crisis are parallel to the moans of ecstasy when an oppressive system crumbles.”