Pedro Molina: “The dictatorship (in Nicaragua) poisoned the Central American well”

Nicaragua is a country that is going through a serious crisis of democracy and as always in these episodes there are people who have to go into exile, from where they try to continue demanding justice for their country. This is the case of the cartoonist, illustrator and journalist Pedro X. Molina (45 years old), who has lived in exile in the United States since 2018 and has been awarded the “Recognition of Excellence from the Gabo 2021 Award” for his work as a cartoonist and journalist.

Molina currently publishes his works in the Nicaraguan newspaper Confidencial and in Counterpoint, in United States.

This is his second exile, since in the 1980s he and his family lived in Guatemala later for fear of reprisals against his father for criticizing Sandinismo from within.

How did you receive this award?

It was unexpected, but very enjoyable. Obviously I would have liked to receive this award in my country, Nicaragua, but unfortunately circumstances do not allow it and I receive it while in exile due to the situation of repression and dictatorship in my country.

When did you decide to leave, was it because of the response to a specific job or what you did in general?

In the work of a cartoonist one develops a certain cage against criticism. But there is a difference between that and receiving threats that can arise within a dictatorship and a murderous repressive system led by a gang that for me is a terrorist, like the FSLN in Nicaragua. For example, in 2018, before kidnapping someone, they would arrive in the middle of the night and paint ‘lead’ on the wall of your house … In my particular case, I remember that one of the nights in 2018 I was already in bed and then the neighbor’s dog started barking, but it was an outrageous thing. It caught my attention and I wanted to look out onto the street. There was a guy in a sweater, with a cap, covered and leaning against the wall of my house. When I turned on the light outside the guy got up and ran away. The next day, the house that woke up marked with ‘lead’, was the house in front of mine … I was already reporting to international organizations, journalists and cartoonists, what had been happening with the union in general, with Nicaragua in general, but also on a personal level … Then, after Confidencial was taken over in December, they told me: look, it is clear that you have to leave Nicaragua because from our experience, and they have experience in that type of case What is going to happen is that if they catch you, you will no longer be able to continue working. We will not be able to do more than put out our protest statements and all that. And we already saw that the dictatorship neither fu nor fa, they are going to have you there to know how long and the most advisable thing is that you leave and that is why we ended up in exile. Later I have received threats that have been sent to me by third parties.

The elections on November 7 in Nicaragua are questioned. What do you think the reaction of other governments in the region should be?

I would expect it to be a reaction of rejection, of non-recognition of what clearly everyone, the international community, the people within Nicaragua, is clear that it is an electoral farce. This does not register the slightest credibility index to be called a formal election as such. … It is not that I am rejecting them, it is that I am demanding that we have elections and this is not an election, that simple. What worries me is that within the properly Central American region there are many interests already mixed with the dictatorship, which poisoned the Central American well and that is something that has me and many people in Nicaragua and Central America very alarmed. Ortega has made disasters, that is, he killed a lot of people. There are a lot of murders in impunity, he destroyed the country’s economy, destroyed freedoms, kidnapped, tortured, exiled tens of thousands of Nicaraguans and the personal costs that he should be paying for all this, they have not been greater for him. thing. So all those who in some way have had, let’s say, an authoritarianism made up or under the table, or a temptation to authoritarianism in the rest of the Central American region, now they see all this and say, well, if Ortega did all this and nothing happened to him, because we do the same because it doesn’t matter, right? … I am concerned because it may spread the crisis to the rest of the region.

What sustains Ortega?

He supports himself by arms and fear and repression. What has economic resources? Of course it does. He sucked the tit of Venezuelan oil for more than a decade and the supposed money that came from Venezuelan aid to Nicaragua … the Ortega Murillo family kept most of that money. Let us remember, for example, that the situation of the independent media became so critical in Nicaragua because all the large traditional media in the country were precisely bought in the course of a decade by the Ortega Murillo family and then Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo gave them a gift. channel to each child … Then all the great media are in their power. It is a really extreme and worrying situation. He is sustained and maintained solely by the corruption of the State and by repression. And yes, there are fanatical people who continue to support him, but there are many, many people also that I know that they have finally been turned around. After all the massacre they committed in 2018, they were able to open their eyes and say this is not even close to what Sandinismo once was, if it was ever anything other than a family party in the hands of Ortega.

Do you think that Sandinismo now has many similarities with the Somoza family?

I believe that the phenomenon is not a Nicaraguan thing, I believe that it is a Latin American vice. Caudillismo, this idea, this dream, this idealization that we Latinos make of our political leaders, in which we deify them and we are always with the idea that a messiah is coming who is going to fix all the problems of the country and we are going to be fine just with the magical requirement to do everything that Messiah tells us and he will think for us and will solve the thing overnight … That caudillismo so harmful throughout Latin American history is The seed of what we have in Nicaragua and then what happened with the Sandinista Front is what usually happens with all revolutionary movements, as happened with Cuba and Venezuela … power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. .. the Somoza family was a dynasty, this is the same thing. We have already had extreme right and extreme left dictatorships and in the end we realize that they are the same thing. When they ask me about ideology, I define myself as an ideological atheist. At this point in my life, from my experience as a Nicaraguan, ideologies are no longer useful to explain my country or even the world.

What option is left to try to solve the Nicaraguan problem?

It’s difficult … almost a philosophical question. There are people who may suddenly think that if this dictatorship is the same as Somoza’s, the way to get out of this dictatorship is how we get out of Somoza’s and that there has to be an armed revolution … But I don’t agree with This is because history itself has also taught us that if bullets were the answer to our problems as a society, as a country, as Nicaraguans, we would not have problems for 40 years. For me the solution is still civic struggle and then people fall on me. How are we going to do that if we can’t even go out with the flag on the street? So this is where Nicaraguan society has a role, resisting as it can and expressing itself as it can, but the international community also has a very important role. I like to remember that when there were the 1990 elections, when Nicaragua was able to return to the democratic channel and Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was elected as president. We had people from the government side of the Sandinista Army living as neighbors alongside another who was from the Contra. There was a great process of pacification and teaching Nicaraguans that the conflicts and differences that we could have from then on had to be resolved peacefully. People actually got this and tried to do that because what we saw in April 2018 was precisely massive peaceful protests. They wanted to have a dialogue and the dictatorship rather used it to gain time and kidnap more people and continue to deepen the repression. So it’s not that we haven’t done our homework as a people. If we did it, then the international community has a great responsibility, which has taught us that these are the parameters of democracy that must be used and that they will be there when we have problems. This international community also has a great responsibility to help them acquire those civic mechanisms that can help us get out of this situation. In short, I still think that the departure from Nicaragua to begin with is a real election.

How long have you been in exile?

My first exile was four years -with his family-, which was from 86 to 90. I returned in December of 1990. This is now for three years, I left on Christmas Day of December 25, 2018, it was chosen that day precisely because the surveillance at the border posts could have been more relaxed. It was actually like that, so it was less confrontational going out. So we arrived and we are going to 3 years. What more would I like than if my first exile was a reference, to tell you that I only have one more year of exile to return to my country. I do not know. I would like to return tomorrow, but in reality this depends on the personal effort of each one, but also of the entire Nicaraguan people and the international community. (O)