Your Local News Roundup, Monday Edition

Miguel Mora

February 25, 2019

Nicaragua

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We’re days from the start of the negotiations between the OrMu administration and the Alianza Civica. Here are news you may have missed.

Miguel Mora Enters Sixth Day of Hunger Strike

On February 19, journalist Miguel Mora began a hunger strike. However, this information did not get out until February 23, when the CPDH revealed the contents of a letter, written by political prisoners. Julio Montenegro, an attorney for the CPDH, indicated via Twitter that Mora had been denied visitation rights with his family, among other violations of his human rights, and those of the other 17 prisoners currently housed with Mora.

This morning, the CPDH held an official press conference, where the organization’s director, Marcos Carmona, showed the letter to the media. It was written on toilet paper. The letter described the conditions inside the isolation gallery at the Jorge Navarro Penitentiary, also known as the Galeria 31. The prisoners wrote that “the physical and mental tortures, and the violations of human rights are the worse within the Penitentiary System. [We] are locked up twenty-four hours per day, in a cell that measures two-by-three meters, with bath included.” Because the doors to these cells are solid, there is no air circulation. This fact has earned Galeria 31 the nickname “El Infiernillo”, the small inferno.

Prisoners also wrote that they have no access to safe, drinking water, and limited access to any packages sent by relatives. They are also not allowed any books, including Bibles, notebooks, pencils, pillows, flip-flops, among other items. However, the worst part of their ordeal is the lack of light, as well as the prevalence of vermin, such as cockroaches, mosquitos, and scorpions, that populate the cells.

Responding to the news, European Parliament Member Ramon Jauregui, who visited Miguel Mora in the prison, stated that Mr. Mora “is a journalist, not a terrorist. MEP Jauregui asked the Ortega government to transfer Mora to house arrest while awaiting trial.

Watch the whole press conference (in Spanish).

La Prensa Publishes Dismal Audience Data for Murillo’s Daily Speech.

La Prensa published data about the online audience for Rosario Murillo’s daily speech, which they obtained by monitoring the social media accounts of Canal 4 and Canal 13. The monitoring took place between February 1 and February 19, and it lends credence to the claim that the OrMu dictatorship lacks an effective social media strategy. For example, the average number of live views of the speech on Canal 13 is 55.

Unfortunately, Nicaragua lacks the equivalent of a Nielsen Ratings, so there is no way of ascertaining total audience across platforms. However, La Prensa’s own data show that the 12 videos hosted on Canal 13 were viewed a combined 22,182 times. Without comparisons to other programs, such as Cafe con Voz, the popular politics talk show hosted by Luis Galeano, the number doesn’t tell us much.

That’s an easy fix, though. Here is the data on total and average number of views of Cafe con Voz for just four days (Feb 4 – Feb 7), as of today (Feb 25).

Cafe con Voz Facebook Audience, Feb 4 – Feb 7

DateNumber of Views
2/410,000
2/519,000
2/618,000
2/716,000
Total63,000
Average15,750

Twenty-nine Years Ago, Violeta B. de Chamorro Won the 1990 Presidential Election

The 1990 presidential election in Nicaragua seemed like a forgone conclusion. Most people believed that Daniel Ortega would easily best underdog Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. To his surprise, and that of many, Chamorro won. Today, we celebrate what could have been, while looking ahead to what is still possible.

A girl can dream…

 

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