Six Years With April in Tow: Life Under Nicaragua's New 'Normal'

Cristina, Sofia, Mariana, Fatima, Francisca, and Pablo share one feeling: fear. They have had to learn to keep quiet and select what they post (or not) on social media because they want or need to remain in Nicaragua, despite the permanent political surveillance of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

For Cristina and Francisca the spies could be their neighbors, for Sofia, it could be her clients, for Mariana her university classmates, for Pablo his colleagues at work, while for Fatima it could be anyone on the street.

The six Nicaraguans agree that behind the appearance of normality that is lived in Nicaragua, six years after the April 2018 Rebellion, anyone can be watching them and self-censorship has increased in the country to avoid being the next victim of repression.

CONFIDENCIAL talked to these Nicaraguans about what their current life is like and what they have had to do to survive and resist in Nicaragua, where the dictatorship persecutes any citizen considered an opponent, or simply a dissident, where anyone who acts or does not commune with the dictatorship can end up as a political prisoner with fabricated crimes in a trial without the right to defense, be banished or be resigned to exile.

"I Don't Talk About Politics With Anyone, Not Even My Family"

Francisca was a journalist but left her profession in 2018 due to safety concerns. Most of her friends and many family members left the country

"My Neighbors Have Threatened Me With Jail"

Cristina is a homemaker from Carazo. She considered herself a Sandinista sympathizer until 2018. She has two sons: one in Nicaragua and one in Costa Rica

"They Made Our Political Prisoners and Their Families Invisible"

Fatima, sister of a political prisoner, faces police harassment and mistreatment when she visits. People avoid speaking to her out of fear of reprisals

"People Think All State Workers Are Fanatics of the Dictatorship"

Pablo is a doctor in a hospital in Granada. He is unhappy with the dictatorship's surveillance, the reason many of his colleagues have resigned

This article was published in Spanish in 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.