28 de enero 2025

Gioconda Belli Novelizes The Silenced Voices of Repression

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The majority of Sandinistas reject religious persecution. Expulsion of citizens and stripping of citizenship generate the highest level of disapproval
The repressive actions taken by the Daniel Ortega-Rosario Murillo regime against citizens they consider political opponents, against the Catholic Church, and even against government party sympathizers, are all rejected by more than 60% of the population, who also continue to have a negative perception of the direction the country is headed in, according to an opinion poll conducted at the end of 2024 by the Sin Límites Foundation and the Costa Rican polling firm CID Gallup.
One question –Do you agree with the government's actions against opposition members?-- included four actions to respond to: confiscation of property, expulsions from the country, stripping of citizenship, and deprivation of liberty or imprisonment.
66.3% of respondents disagreed with property confiscations, while 14.8% agreed, 12.2% said they didn't know or didn't answer, and 6.8% neither agreed nor disagreed.
Regarding the government expelling people from the country, 62.1% of the respondents disagreed, while 17.3% agreed, 13.3% said they didn't know or didn't answer, and 7.3% neither agreed nor disagreed.
Regarding the stripping of citizenship of political opponents, 61% of respondents disagreed, while 18.3% agreed, 12.7% said they didn't know or didn't answer, and 8% neither agreed nor disagreed.
Similarly, 57.3% of those surveyed disagreed with the government's imprisonment of the opposition, while 23% agreed, 9.8% said they didn't know or didn't respond, and 9% neither disagreed nor agreed.
This survey was conducted by CID Gallup in several Latin American countries, and included a series of questions from the Sin Límites Foundation (FSL), a regional think tank and advocacy center founded in 2009 in Costa Rica and which has been operating since 2022 with a multidisciplinary Central American team.
In Nicaragua, the opinion poll was conducted between September 16 and October 18, 2024. A total of 1,200 citizens over 16 years old and with active cell phones throughout the country were interviewed. 27.9% were in Managua and 72.1% in the rest of the country. The survey has a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of ±2.5%.
Unlike other telephone surveys, the period of information collection was longer than usual, due to the context of increased repression in the country between July and September 2024. This survey, dated November 2024, reveals that the percentage of people who said they didn't know or didn't answer questions about the political context of the country remained relatively constant with respect to the previous survey carried out in May 2024.
CID Gallup also asked participants: Do you agree with the Government's actions against religious men and women? This question referred to the imprisonment of bishops and priests, the expulsion of priests and nuns from the country, and the confiscation of Church properties.
60.8% of respondents disagreed with the government's actions against clergy and nuns, 17.2% agreed, 12.7% neither agreed nor disagreed and 9.3% said they didn't know or didn't answer.
The respondents who expressed the greatest rejection of the repressive actions of the regime are those who do not sympathize with any political party, but in the case of religious persecution and repression, even among FSLN sympathizers, the proportion of those who disagreed (37.3%) was greater than those who agreed (27.3%).
Another question was: Do you agree with the Government's actions against people who support the Government itself? This referred to sympathizers of the Sandinista Front and members of the Nicaraguan Army and the National Police. CID Gallup asked about three types of repressive actions: confiscation of property, job dismissals, and deprivation of liberty or imprisonment.
64.3% of respondents disagreed with the government's confiscation of property of regime sympathizers, 18.4% agreed, 11.3% said they didn't know or didn't answer, and 6% neither agreed nor disagreed.
59.2% also disagreed with the dismissal of public officials as a repressive action, while 23.7% agreed, 10.6% said they didn't know or didn't answer, and 6.6% neither agreed nor disagreed.
At the same time, 55.8% rejected depriving the liberty or imprisonment of persons sympathetic to the regime, while 24.5% agreed, 11.5% said they didn't know or didn't answer, and 8.2% neither agreed nor disagreed.
To the question: Which is the political party of your preference?, 76% of the respondents answered “none.” Only 13% answered “Frente Sandinista” and 10% said other parties.
The most recent polls conducted by CID Gallup indicate that support for the Sandinista Front fell from 56% in 2016, to 11% in May 2023. Since then, in four consecutive polls, support has remained between 11 and 13%.
CID Gallup also asked: What is your opinion about the country's direction? 54% responded that the country is going in the wrong direction, 32% responded that it is going in the right direction, and 14% said they didn't know.
In response to the question: What is your evaluation of the work of President Daniel Ortega?, a majority of 57% said they disapproved of the job he's doing as president, 37% said they approved and 10% said they didn't know or didn't answer.
This survey was conducted prior to the approval in the first legislature of the total reform to the Political Constitution, in which the powers of the State were dismantled and the figure of co-presidency was established. The survey asked survey participants about their opinion on the future of the regime without the Sandinista leader, Daniel Ortega.
FSL--CID Gallup asked: If President Daniel Ortega were unable to govern, who could assume the leadership of the Government? 46% of those polled said they didn't know or didn't answer, 28% said Rosario Murillo, 10% said Laureano Ortega Murillo, 6% said Fidel Moreno, and 4% said Gustavo Porras.
Survey participants were also asked: What would happen in the country if Daniel Ortega could not govern? A majority of 55.4% responded that there would be changes. Of these, 35% said they thought there would be social protests and 20.4% said there would be new elections with international observation.
Meanwhile, 23.8% said they believed that even if Daniel Ortega could not govern there would be no changes in the country, and 16.4% said they didn't know or didn't answer.
This article was first published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated by our staff. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.
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Confidencial es un diario digital nicaragüense, de formato multimedia, fundado por Carlos F. Chamorro en junio de 1996. Inició como un semanario impreso y hoy es un medio de referencia regional con información, análisis, entrevistas, perfiles, reportajes e investigaciones sobre Nicaragua, informando desde el exilio por la persecución política de la dictadura de Daniel Ortega y Rosario Murillo.
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