April 18: One Year Later, Nicaragua Still Resists and Remembers (Part 1).

April 18, 2019

Nicaragua

I belong to the Nicaraguan generation that was too young to fight against Somoza, but old enough to remember Sandinismo. Like many others, I stayed in Nicaragua throughout the 1980s, and I voted for Violeta Chamorro in 1990.

I thought the days of dictatorships were over then, but I was sadly mistaken. Nicaragua never had a chance to develop its fledgling democracy.

Now we are here. It has been one full year since the country erupted against Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

Now we are here, and hopelessly divided, witnessing and experiencing a never-ending parade of of repression.

Now we are here, among the refugees of the world.

Now we are here, mourning our dead.

Today, we have reached 365 days of civic resistance against the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship.

Here is a compilation of retrospectives published by Nicaraguan and International media, marking the first anniversary of April 18. This is Part 1 of a two-post series. Part 2 collects music, graphic arts, and memes from the past year.

The Media Looks Back: Retrospectives.

Esta Semana

Carlos Fernando Chamorro and the team from Confidencial and Esta Semana produced a one-hour+ retrospective, honoring the victims of the repression.

El País

El País is one of the few international news organizations that has consistently reported on Nicaragua, primarily through the work of their correspondents Carlos Salinas Maldonado and Javier Lafuente.

Niu

Carlos Herrera, photographer at Confidencial, Niu, and contributor to El País, curated a selection of images of his work throughout the year. Niu is edited by journalist Yader Luna, and it is part of the Confidencial family of media outlets.

PXMolina

The team at Niu curated a collection of editorial cartoons by PX Molina. The collection is free to download from their website.

Javier Bauluz: The Rebellion of the Sandinista’s Grandchildren (originally published May 15, 2018)

Pulitzer Prize winner Javier Bauluz travelled to Nicaragua last year to document the protests. His work was published by Univision.

Univisión

Univisión’s retrospective features Wilfredo Miranda, Maynor Salazar, and Javier Bauluz.

The Conversation

Benjamin Waddell looks back over the past year in Nicaragua. He writes “I am an American scholar who has researched Nicaraguan politics for years. When the political chaos forced my family and me to abandon Managua in June 2018, I felt fairly certain that Ortega’s days were numbered. In a democratic society, I might have been right.”

Nicaragua Investiga

The team at Nicaragua Investiga is running a series today, called #EspecialesDeAbril. Here is the first installment

Remezcla

Alica Reina starts her recap of the past year with a quote from Ernesto Cardenal’s La Hora O, “But April in Nicaragua is the month of death.” 

Go to Part 2…

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