AA
Share
The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) approved the admission of Nicaraguan writer and politician Sergio Ramírez Mercado to occupy Seat L, left vacant by Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, who died in April 2025.
“To come to occupy a seat at the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language, and especially the seat that belonged to Mario Vargas Llosa, means an immense honor and an honor for my country. I know that thousands of Nicaraguans will celebrate this news together with me. This only reaffirms my Nicaraguan identity,” Ramírez said in remarks to CONFIDENCIAL.
The vote was approved during the closed-door plenary session held on Thursday, May 21, 2026, at the institution’s headquarters, RAE sources told EFE.
Ramírez’s candidacy, winner of the 2017 Cervantes Prize, was the only one submitted for the position and was endorsed, as required by the institution’s statutes, by three members of the Academy: former RAE director Víctor García de la Concha; writer Luis Mateo Díez, winner of the 2023 Cervantes Prize; and the current RAE director, Santiago Muñoz Machado.
Ramírez’s nomination was officially announced on May 7, 2026, and a week later his credentials were presented during an extraordinary plenary session held in León. During the event, Mateo Díez described him as a “fundamental, generous, and committed” writer who “lives in forced exile because of the dictatorial regime in his country.”
“We do not believe there is a better candidate than this writer, winner of the Cervantes Prize in 2017, who lives in forced exile because of the dictatorial regime in his country,” he added, referring to the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
A Controversial Candidacy
However, Ramírez’s nomination sparked disagreements among Nicaraguans grouped under the Citizens’ Initiative Victims of Sandinismo, who opposed the candidacy because they believe the writer’s political past prevents him from occupying the vacant seat.
“Seat L is the place once occupied by Mario Vargas Llosa, a persistent voice against totalitarianism in Latin America. We affirm that this candidacy does not honor the moral, intellectual, and historical legacy associated with that place in the Spanish language,” according to a letter sent to RAE director Santiago Muñoz Machado.
The author of novels such as Margarita está linda la mar (Alfaguara, 1998) and Adiós muchachos (1999) was one of the leading figures of the Sandinista Revolution that overthrew Somoza in 1979 and served as vice president in Daniel Ortega’s first government, from which he later distanced himself.
In 2021, the Nicaraguan Prosecutor’s Office issued an arrest warrant against him for inciting hatred following the publication of his novel ‘Tongolele no sabía bailar’ centered on political repression in his country. In 2023, Ortega’s regime stripped him of his Nicaraguan nationality. He has held Spanish citizenship since 2018.
Prior to the vote, a group of 214 academics, writers, journalists, artists, and human rights defenders from more than 15 countries issued a public statement addressed to members of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) in support of the Nicaraguan novelist’s candidacy.
“We respectfully urge the members of the RAE to proceed with the election of Sergio Ramírez to Seat L,” the signatories stated in the document.
Among those who signed were former Costa Rican president Luis Guillermo Solís; Nicaraguans Dora María Téllez (historian), Daisy Zamora (poet); and Mexican writer Héctor Aguilar Camín.
“Permitir que una campaña política prevalezca sobre el mérito literario e intelectual en la selección de los académicos sentaría un precedente peligroso para la autonomía e integridad de la propia RAE”, consideraron, en referencia a la crítica de la Iniciativa Ciudadana Víctimas del Sandinismo que se opuso a su candidatura.
65 Years of Literary Work
Sergio Ramírez Mercado has spent more than 65 years in literary production since beginning his writing career. He published his first book, El estudiante, in 1960 when he was 18 years old. He later published his first novel, Tiempo de fulgor (1970). Since then, he has written short stories, novels, and essays, and has also worked as a journalist, politician, and lawyer.
The writer, journalist, and politician has published more than 40 books throughout his literary career. His essays, short stories, and reissues bring the total number of his works to more than 165, translated into around twenty languages.
In 2025, he won the prize at the Sixth Mario Vargas Llosa Novel Biennial for his novel El caballo dorado. In early May 2026, he received the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Prize for his articles published in El País. In 2017, the novelist was awarded the Cervantes Prize.
With information from EFE News Agency.
