In the last weeks of November, the Ortega-Murillo regime resumed arbitrary kidnappings and forced more Nicaragua citizens into exile, including content creators, teachers, religious figures, and even individuals associated with beauty pageants. As incredible it may sound, as a result of the triumph of Sheynnis Palacios as the first Centralamerican to win Miss Universe; Miss Nicaragua franchise owner Karen Celebertti was barred from returning to her own country, and her husband was placed under arrest and charged with «treason» on Friday, December 1.
These recent repressive acts demonstrate that in Nicaragua, nobody is safe; at any moment, anyone can become a victim of the dictatorship for not aligning with its politics.
According to Danny Ramírez Ayérdiz, Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Legal Aid Center on Human Rights (Calidh), «the dictatorship is becoming increasingly indiscriminate regarding the people it detains.»
During the initial stages of arbitrary detentions, the dictatorship had specific targets: politicians, activists, opponents, journalists, and media leaders. This was to ensure absolute control leading up to the 2021 presidential elections. Once they ensured the imprisonment, exile, and silencing of these groups within the country, they targeted other individuals: mainly priests and nuns of the Catholic Church.
While anyone deviating from the regime’s line has always been prone to suffering consequences, the situation has now worsened. This is exemplified by the recent exile of the director of the Miss Nicaragua beauty pageant, Karen Celebertti, and the persecution against her family.
The dictatorship’s «revolving door»
According to exiled political activist Juan Diego Barberena, as long as the regime remains in power, arbitrary detentions of Nicaraguans will continue.
«It’s the revolving door dynamic, releasing some prisoners while arresting others. The aim of repositioning politically for the purpose of a potential negotiation is one of the factors behind the recent events,» he explained to LA PRENSA.
«In Nicaragua, nobody is safe. Calidh has insisted that the country is experiencing state terrorism, which involves the use of repressive tools outside the bounds of legality, resulting in widespread fear, panic, and terror among the population,» stated the Calidh secretary.
With the exile of the Miss Nicaragua director and arrest of her husband Martín Argüello and her son Bernardo, according to Juan Diego Barberena, «the dictatorship has realized they don’t have control over the streets and popular mobilization as they seemed to believe they had. They’ve come to realize that there’s still a hope within the Nicaraguan people that political change is possible.»
Barberena referred to the massive street celebrations sparked by Sheynnis Palacios’ victory as the first Nicaraguan to win Miss Universe in the contest’s 72-year history. Her win brought people to the streets, driving caravans with blue and white flags, horns blaring, and shouts of «long live Nicaragua.» Such events hadn’t been seen in the country since 2018 when all forms of street protests were banned.
Activist Barberena expressed that the citizen mobilization to celebrate Palacios’ victory reflects that the «repressive apparatus lacked the capacity to suppress a people that took to the streets waving national symbols.»
Kidnappings due to criticisms on social media
Another of the recent kidnapping victims is the TikToker Geovany López Acevedo, known as Tropi Gamer, who is detained for criticizing the hosts of the pro-government Channel 13 for their negative remarks about Sheynnis Palacios.
López was formerly associated with the Sandinista Youth, one of the groups utilized by the regime to repress and generate conflicts.
In his TikTok videos, López called on Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo to send Miss Universe for an interview with the pro-government hosts who had mocked her. Sources close to his family confirmed to LA PRENSA that the content creator was taken to La Modelo prison, and as of now, no charges against him are known.
On November 29th, the kidnapping of the teacher and sociologist Freddy Quezada was reported. Quezada made comments on social media regarding the «staged performance» the regime conducted when presenting Monsignor Rolando Álvarez through official media.
This Wednesday, the case of priest Jairo Antonio Mercado Pavón surfaced, as the regime denied him entry into the country, marking yet another attack on the persecuted and harassed Catholic Church in Nicaragua.
«The exile of the Miss Nicaragua director, the arrest of her husband and son, along with the capture of the TikTok influencer and former member of the Sandinista Youth, coupled with the arbitrary kidnapping of the teacher, is a clear reflection that the dictatorship knows they have no control; they don’t control popular mobilization,» emphasized Barberena.
The kidnapping and exile of opponents have a dual interpretation, according to Danny Ramírez: «The first is to punish opposition, and the other is in terms of state terrorism, seeking to distance the population further from becoming the next victim of an arrest.»
