OPINION: On International Women’s Day, What Sayeth the Alianza?

March 8, 2019

Nicaragua

,

March 8 is International Women’s Day. In Nicaragua, there are dozens of female political prisoners. Last week, eight of them began a hunger strike, at the Esperanza Women’s Correctional.

The women took this radical decision because they do not feel represented in the negotiations between OrMu and the Alianza, which began on the same day as their hunger strike, nine days ago. They wrote, “We feel like simple pieces on a board that those who have political and economic control us to play games.”

The government did not respond to the letter, which is not surprising at all, since the OrMu administration doesn’t acknowledge any political prisoners to begin with. However, the Alianza, as an organization, was also called out by name. The prisoners criticized for accepting a negotiation without conditions, including the release of political prisoners. Furthermore, the women questioned the Alianza’s lack of transparency and their exclusion of “important and impactful sectors, such as the Peasant Movement, the mothers of the assassinated and political prisoners, the feminist movements, and others”

In spite of these direct criticisms, the Alianza has yet to respond to what the prisoners wrote. They did, however, release another video, honoring International Women’s Day.  The short clip recognizes the “invaluable contributions made by Nicaraguan women to this fight for liberty, democracy, and justice.”

Now, it is understandable that the Alianza wants to minimize conflicts with OrMu during these negotiations. After all, it is important that both sides remain at the table, if there’s any hope for any kind of resolution to our current crisis. Nevertheless, the delicate balancing act required by complex negotiations is no excuse for utter tone-deafness, if not sheer stupidity, for that is what two of the principals in the Alianza’s negotiating team chose to do this morning.

I have criticized the Alianza in the past, but I have never doubted that they have an adequate team in charge of communication strategies. After all, they do churn out slick videos almost every day, and their copy writers have a knack for introducing technical terms into general usage (ahem… “hoja de ruta”?). In other words, they have an ok team, which is why I cannot fathom what Jose Adan Aguerri (COSEP) and Mario Arana (AMCHAM) where thinking when they clicked the tweet button to share their messages to Nicaraguan women. Silence would have been preferable to their insipid pleasantries and religious memes about Adam’s rib.

Let’s start with Mr. Aguerri. He reflected on words that can be used to describe women, such as mysticism (really?)

Mysticism, Unity, Joy, Hope, Responsibility. Those are a some of the words that express what the term WOMEN means in our lives. Our recognition on this day, for what women represent every day. [We especially recognize] the bravery of the Nicaraguan woman.

In similar vein, Mr. Arana tweeted a congratulatory message. “Congratulations to that beautiful human being, called woman,” he wrote, via Twitter. His words accompanied this quote by Matthew Henry, capped by the words “Happy Women’s Day!”:

“Women were created from the rib of man to be beside him, not from his head to top him, nor from his feet to be trampled by him, but from under his arm to be protected by him, near to his heart to be loved by him.”

As if that wasn’t enough, Mr. Arana also shared the Alianza’s promo video, with a shoutout to his wife and daughter. A nice touch!

Under normal circumstances, I would simply dismiss both men’s sentiments as the usual PR that Nicaraguan big businesses issue whenever they want to commemorate an important date. It’s no different from saying Merry Xmas! Unfortunately, these are not normal circumstances, and both of these men know it, or should know it.

Aren’t they part of a team that declares its commitment to “freedom and security for political prisoners; reestablishment of constitutional freedoms and rights; electoral reforms; and justice” every time they issue a public statement?

The Alianza, as a whole, knows that nothing is normal in Nicaragua. They know we have over 700 hundred political prisoners, and unless they’ve been hiding under a rock, they know that eight women called them out explicitly. Yet two of their principal negotiators glossed over these facts. Fortunately, two other members of the negotiating team seem to have some common sense and understood that “congratulations” are not in order right now. Juan Sebastian Chamorro and Azahalea Solis took a different approach to International Women’s day.

Juan Sebastian Chamorro is one of the principals in the negotiation. He is the Executive Director of FUNIDES, an economic policy think tank and non-profit organization. Chamorro commended Nicaraguan women, expressing that “there is nothing to celebrate, as long as freedoms, rights, and constitutional guarantees are not reestablished,”

Solis, on the other hand, is the alternate for Dr. Carlos Tunnerman. She is a feminist activist, and a member of the Movimiento Autonomo de Mujeres. She commemorated International Women’s Day by echoing IM-Defensora’s call to action and joined the #SetThemFree campaign, to demand the release of women political prisoners.

The campaign raises awareness about the situation of female political prisoners in Nicaragua. One hundred and two women have been captured arbitrarily since April of last year. Of these, sixty-seven are still in prison, five have been sentenced, twelve have been transferred to house arrest. In addition, three of the female prisoners are transgender, but have been housed in male-only facilities. In addition, #SetThemFree explicitly calls out the eight prisoners who are on a hunger strike, which makes Solis the only member of the Alianza to acknowledge it.

Other messages from the campaign shared by Solis describe what the prisoners and their families experience on a regular basis. “They are mistreated physically and verbally; they suffer sexual violence as a form of punishment and torture; they are punished through isolation, and they are denied medical care.” In addition, prisoners are denied medicine brought to them by family members, who are are refused access to their loved ones. These families suffer harassment and contend with arbitrary violations of due process. Many famiies are forced to relocate to Managua, when their relatives are transferred, which causes even more financial and emotional hardships. This situation is tantamount to “a humanitarian crisis.”

Solis caps her tweets by “demanding a guarantee of absolute freedom an a stop to the repression agains those who have been excarcerated.”

Azahalea Solis’ and Juan Sebastian Chamorro’s choices for International Women’s Day show that there are other ways to reflect on why this day was instituted to begin with. In Nicaragua, this is not a day for pleasantries or business as usual. In fact, it has never been, considering how much still remains to be done to empower women and girls who are more than a remnant of Adam’s Rib.

Today is a day to remember that so many of us owe so much to so few.

#QueLasLiberen.

 

 

 

 

 

Related Posts