The Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez participates in the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) to talk about the turbulent situation in Central America at a table organized by EL PAÍS. The region is going through a difficult political situation dominated by the excesses of authoritarian regimes, corruption and violence.
The writer, winner of the Cervantes Prize and former vice president of Nicaragua, will discuss these issues with EL PAÍS journalist David Marcial Pérez. The table, with the title, Exile, censorship and oppression in Central America It will take place on Saturday, November 25 at 6:00 p.m. and will be part of the FIL Literature program.
Ramírez himself embodies many of the grievances of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua, surely the most extreme case in the region. Stripped of his lawyer’s title, his house and even his nationality, the writer is one of the hundreds of thousands of politically exiled and persecuted people. Last year alone, 170,000 Nicaraguans requested asylum in the United States.
Ramírez’s latest novel, Tongolele didn’t know how to dance (Alfaguara, 2021), is in fact a fictional account of the totalitarian drift of Ortega, the writer’s former companion during the Sandinista revolution against the dictator Somoza. Ramírez is also the founder of the Centroamérica Cuenta literature festival, which this year celebrated its 10 years with the participation of more than 70 authors from 20 countries. The festival, which was born in Managua, has become traveling due to the political persecution of the Daniel Ortega regime against intellectuals and critical voices.
In addition to Nicaragua, the outlook is not much more encouraging in El Salvador. President Nayib Bukele is on his way to becoming another textbook leader. After the assault on the Prosecutor’s Office and the Constitutional Court, he has already announced that he will run for re-election next year, despite being prohibited by the Constitution. The persecution of the independent press, complaints about the opacity of the economy are other ingredients, to which is added the ferocious war launched against the gangs. More than a year ago, Bukele implemented an exceptional regime that is managing to reduce violence rates at the cost of accumulating a torrent of abuses against civil rights and liberties.
The contagion effect of the Bukele phenomenon, one of the leaders with the greatest popular approval on the continent, has reached neighboring Honduras. President Xiomara Castro also decreed a state of emergency inspired by El Salvador. Murders have decreased, but the control of gangs and drug trafficking groups continues. Reports of torture are growing in prisons, now under military control.
Meanwhile, the elected president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, faces a via crucis to be able to govern through the boycott of the country’s elites. Arévalo knew how to capitalize on the fatigue of Guatemalans with a firm anti-corruption message and a condemnation of the establishment which, in recent years, has stepped on the accelerator to sow authoritarianism with the persecution of prosecutors, activists and journalists, mainly those who investigated the current Government of Alejandro Giammattei.
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