April 2018 was the expression of a collective feeling, of a shared vision and of values rooted among Nicaraguans given the urgent need for a profound change to build a new nation in freedom, democracy and justice. April was solidarity, it showed the best in each one of us, in the people’s willingness to sacrifice, leaving aside personal ambitions and selfishness for love of country.

The objectives of April are still pending, the spirit of struggle and the certainty that the dictatorship will fall is a feeling that is still alive, embodied in the hearts of the great majority of Nicaraguans. April is a symbol, a cry, a hope, a force that unites and is not forgotten.

The Ortega Murillo dictatorship knows that April is constantly reviving with the same vitality it had seven years ago. That it is not a mere memory, but a force that is still alive and that all their attempts to kill it are futile.

They are also aware that resilience has made us Nicaraguans learn to grow from difficult experiences. That all the propaganda, repression, persecution and crimes have not prevented us from adjusting to the new circumstances, maintaining a positive vision and feeling capable of facing the immense challenge of achieving the change we desire. 

They know they are defeated

The codictators know they are defeated, and that is why they have self-approved a new Constitution and new laws increasingly authoritarian and repressive. They have expanded their methods to try to control society by increasing the number of members of the Army and the Police. They hide the faces of the increasing number of paramilitaries at their service under ski masks and are also withdrawing from international organizations specialized in human rights and isolating themselves from the democratic world.

The Ortega Murillo dictatorship wants to erase from the collective memory the extrajudicial executions, massacres, tortures, banishments, denationalizations, forced exile, unjust imprisonments, rigged trials and confiscations they have enforced. But seven years after the beginning of this nightmare, the victims, their families and the international community continue to build historical memory and open roads that will lead us to justice.

Given the success of the international support network for the Nicaraguan cause of freedom and punishment for the perpetrators of crimes against humanity, the dictatorship increases the repression and hateful tone of its speeches. The co-dictator, Rosario Murillo, evidences her frustration and failure when she spouts all kinds of insults and disqualifications during her daily speeches.

Not forgetting the murdered and rewriting their names should not only be seen as an act of solidarity, but as a reminder that we have a pending task before us, to build a new homeland and bring their executioners to justice.

Hope is an active force

April is also about recognizing the young people who gave their lives, their freedom, their studies and their dreams in the struggle for a better country. Many of them now live in exile, far from their family and homeland. Their sacrifice reminds us that the road to freedom is still open and that our determination must not waver.

We Nicaraguans, inside and outside the country, have to reach a common voice, inspired by the spirit of April, that drives us to seek paths in which we put aside our differences and persevere in our commitment to build a new nation.

For the Nicaraguan Democratic Concertation (CDN), hope is not a passive desire but a powerful active force, driven by the need for a free future. We resist with renewed strength to implement a consensual strategy and plan of action to further isolate, weaken and overthrow the most opprobrious dictatorship in the Americas. The dictators Ortega and Murillo will fall and Nicaraguans will fulfill our dream of living in a permanent springtime of freedom, democracy and justice.

China’s double threat

In December 2021 the Ortega Murillo regime reestablished diplomatic relations with China after cutting them with Taiwan, even though this was one of the few democratic countries that maintained relations with them after the socio-political crisis of 2018. During that period, they covered for them while attacking their people and destroying the country’s institutionality.

This rupture was not accidental and occurred a few days after Nicaragua left the Organization of American States (OAS). It was of no use to the Taiwanese the sad role they played, since by leaving the OAS the regime put an end to everything that resembled freedom. To do so, it needed to ally itself with the Chinese dictatorship, to use it as a political shield in the international arena and, as much as possible, as an alternative financial support.

Before Nicaragua’s partnership, other countries in the region like Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic had already allied themselves with the Asian giant, but under totally different conditions. These nations, like others in the continent, took advantage of the advantageous position given to them by China’s willingness to pay to take allies away from Taiwan. For these countries, this translated into non-reimbursable cooperation, without sacrificing their political independence from China and without becoming enemies of the United States.

For Nicaragua it was the opposite. It did so at a disadvantage because of its isolation from the Western world and under the pressure of reduced support from international financial institutions, it sought their protection.

China took advantage of the situation

China took advantage of this situation and opened the door, but at a high cost. The Ortega-Murillo dictatorship betrayed the country, surrendered the independence achieved two hundred years ago and became a mere pawn of China and its main promoter in the region. The costs of this decision are high politically and economically, internationally and domestically.n fact, for Nicaraguans this alliance is a double threat in the international field, because the consequences of allying with the main adversary of the United States are unpredictable. In the domestic and international field, the consequences of this alliance will be felt by the Nicaraguan people.

In the international field because the consequences of allying with the main adversary of the United States are unpredictable. In the domestic sphere because they handed the country over to the new colonizers, who are now invading it and affecting employment and trade.

We live in times of unpredictable political changes. The Trump administration is clear on the objective of its new foreign policy. It wants a safer, more prosperous and stronger country.

Nicaragua, day by day, deepens this alliance and in doing so, creates new and constant threats and risks for American security, while for China’s other allies in the region there are no major political commitments. This was demonstrated, for example, by Panama’s decision to claim that the Chinese companies operating in the Canal were in breach of contract.

On the other hand, Nicaragua is absolutely committed to China, because it feels that part of its survival rests on this protection. This is evidenced by the decision to hand over the construction of the Punta Huete Airport and the management of ports to Chinese companies, which will facilitate the access of Chinese military and armament to targets located at a short distance from the United States. This becomes a high security issue for that country.

Stopping China’s advance

In addition, by having diplomatic relations, they can offer the construction of the canal to the Chinese government and not to a businessman, as happened with Wang Jing when the alliance did not exist.

In addition, while the region faces highly volatile conditions, the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship promotes the entry and participation of China and Russia, and the exit of Taiwan, in the Central American Integration System (SICA), the Central American Parliament (Parlacen) and other regional spaces, in order to reduce American influence in the region.

The signing of multiple cooperation and training agreements in the field of communications, military and police, and the strengthening of the alliance between the Sandinista and Communist parties, allow China to defend the dictatorship in international forums, and Nicaragua to second the Chinese position and narrative against the United States in these forums.

China has offered Nicaragua, but not disbursed, more than 900 million dollars in loans. They are mortgaging the country. Thousands of hectares of mining concessions have been handed over to Chinese companies, affecting indigenous communities. On the trade front, by the end of 2024 total exports to China reached US$82 million, an amount that still does not equal what was sent to Taiwan in 2021.

In addition, an invasion of Chinese traders is displacing Nicaraguan businesses under a corrupt system of preferential investments and imports where the jobs they generate are poorly paid and poorly treated.

From the Nicaraguan Democratic Concertation (CDN), we reject this surrender to the new colonizer, the betrayal of the Ortega-Murillo family to the independence of the country and the Nicaraguans and we call on the United States and the Central American governments to stop the Chinese advance and the security risk it entails individually and regionally.