Nicaragua’s co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have now resorted to a new tactical approach to expelling and arresting political prisoners who have been subject to enforced disappearance. The movement comes on the eve of an important decision for the Sandinista government. Donald Trump’s administration will have to decide whether to expel the Central American country from the DR-CAFTA free trade agreement or impose 100% guarantees on it because of systematic human rights abuses in the country, which has become a “burden to the American nation,” according to a study by the Washington Office of the Trade Representative.
Throughout the morning, Sandinista propaganda media broadcast the appearance of correspondent Fabiola Tercero. One year and four months after her arrest, her home was destroyed and she disappeared from the public radar. The official media tried to discredit everyone who needed to know the whereabouts of the correspondent, with headlines such as “A terrible lie in the hands of avengers.”
Tercero said the tactics previously used by the co-presidential administration and classified by human rights groups as “coerced confessions” were suggested by government journalists who “have been living with his mother in his home in Managua’s second district, William Díaz, in recent years.” Four days earlier, the regime had quietly detained five other political prisoners, including journalist Leo Carcamo.
In previous months, the U.S. Embassy in Managua had continued to campaign in support of Mr. Tercero and Mr. Carcamo. The Managua government demanded an investigation into the lives of the correspondents and revealed their whereabouts. This incarceration and exhibition of these people is interpreted by political analysts consulted by EL PAÍS as an attempt by the two-time president to return to using political prisoners as bargaining cards in his favor.On November 19, the Office of the United States Commercial Representative (USTR) will conclude the public consultation phase concluding that the administration’s “policies, actions, and practices” are “unjust and burdensome.” The resolution issued under Section 301 of the Commercial Code of 1974 provides for “or restrictions” on North American trade.
The USTR will put on the table several options that would deal a fatal blow to Nicaragua’s economy, whose main trading partner is Washington: expulsion of Nicaragua’s capital and trade treaty, DR-CAFTA, and the imposition of 100% arancel. The measure has always been a concern in Managua, particularly by North American businessmen in the textile, tobacco and coffee sectors with interests in the Central American country, who have lobbied heavily in the US capital to avoid such a fatal blow without significant human rights violations.
“And now the time has come for political prisoners to re-enter the country as currency,” Salvador Lucio Malenco, a human rights lawyer from Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Más, told EL PAÍS. “In addition to the discussions on the Free Trade Treaty, there is another important thing. For the first time in a long time, a dictator spoke to the international community at the UN Third Committee, when the Group of Experts submitted its report on crimes against humanity. At this meeting, Nicaragua’s deputy ambassador expressed the regime’s concerns about sanctions and economic measures.”
Will the US collapse again?
This is not the first time Ortega Murillo has imprisoned political prisoners with the aim of weakening international concessions. In this sense, former opposition Eliseo Núñez believes that these recent untimely imprisonments are an attempt to initiate, or intensify, negotiations to prepare for the DR-CAFTA and the expulsion of the Aransels.
But opponents who have been stripped of their nationality warn that the creation of the special zone may be a Sandinista gimmick to “save time” to strengthen ties with China at the expense of Asian interests. “This is to avoid sanctions and tariffs and allow Chinese companies to export to the United States under CAFTA,” Nunez said. “As I said before, it would be a mistake to keep Nicaragua in CAFTA.”
Juan Carlos Gutierrez, a researcher who was also denationalized, is instead aiming to stop the United States. He argues that the ploy of imprisoning political prisoners is a tactical strategy that does not bring about any change in the background. Ortega Murillo loses his income and ends up in prison. “What you’re doing is managing the fear that you feel in a significant segment of the population, because these incarcerations serve three purposes at once,” he says. And Empieza enumerates: “Reducing the political costs of maintaining the consciousness of those who are unjustly imprisoned, reducing the economic costs of keeping them in prison and shifting the psychological and material burden onto their families; freeing people from fear, with no communication, no employment, and constant low vigilance, as in the case of Fabiola Tercero.”
For now, the last political prisoners are unwilling to talk to Nadi, let alone their families, but must report to police stations daily to sign acts of aid. But the future of Nicaragua’s economy, with more than 55% of its trade going to the United States, will be in the hands of President Trump, brokered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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