My (R)evolution, part 2.
Since April 19 of this year, there is political upheaval going on in Nicaragua,
the country that I have called home since 2005. What’s happening isn’t pretty, and it doesn’t seem that the situation is going to be solved anytime soon: the people of Nicaragua have—quite suddenly—stood up against their president, Daniel Ortega, and his wife, vice-president Rosario Murillo.
I can’t say I have openly announced it, but over the past few years I have regularly wondered when something would finally spark this fiery nation back into their old mode of standing up for their rights. Last century they fought a 28 year civil war to overthrow the dictatorship of the Somoza family. Nicaraguans showed then a drive for freedom and equality to reckon with. Men and women didn’t give up in their fight for democracy, and won.
In 2006 Daniel Ortega was elected president. In 2011 he was re-elected. Then he single-handedly changed the constitution so that he could be re-elected until his death.
I happened to be in the capital, Managua, in the weeks prior to the last elections in 2016. In the city, shared taxis are the most used means of “public” transport. They are a great way to engage in conversations with the local population.
On one taxi-ride I asked the driver when exactly the elections were scheduled. He shrugged his shoulders…,