The “Co -President” of Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, spent three days angered by the World Press Freedom Award that the United Nations Educational, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) delivered to the newspaper The press last May 3. He issued a statement loaded with poisoned epithets against the newspaper and the United Nations Agency; He followed the insults in his daily spelling broadcast on television, to the point that his government withdrew Nicaragua from the organization. His argument was to consider it “promoter, and obviously complicit, of an action that offends and aggregates the deepest values of Nicaraguan national identity and culture.”
“The newspaper The press It represents the betrayal of the country, precisely because it is a medium that has promoted and backed violence, interference, crimes of hate, cruelty, anti -culture and antivalores, throughout its history. A medium to the service and the promotion and defense of US military and political occupations and interventions in Nicaragua, ”added the statement signed by the co -president.
Juan Lorenzo Holmann, general director of The press, He tells El País that what surprised him most about Murillo’s anger was the decision to withdraw Nicaragua from Unesco. Political and banished release in the United States, Holmann acknowledges that it is a government led by Daniel Ortega and his wife, but he does not doubt that Murillo was the one that was most bothered by the prize awarded to the confiscated writing and whose journalists – all – are in exile. Is that the “co -president” had a relationship, in the past, very close to The press: He was part of the newspaper as secretary of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, the historic director of the newspaper who was killed by the Somocista dictatorship in 1978.
“Rosario feels envy for The pressbecause it has not ceased to be the newspaper of the Nicaraguans, ”summarizes Holmann to El País.“ Envy of seeing how The press, In spite of everything she takes with repression and propaganda, she is still seen as the Nicaraguan newspaper and Nicaraguans recognize her as such. Nicaraguans want The press And not to the Rosary, ”says the director.
According to Holmann, Murillo knew since before recognition because, by protocol, UNESCO has to previously notify its members. “Then they told her. What happened between Thursday and Saturday? I would not know how The pressbut it was an international jury panel that has decided to grant this recognition to the press, the Nicaraguan newspaper, ”says the release.
Journalistic reinvention
In August 2021, the National Police raided and confiscated the writing of the newspaper The press, The oldest in Nicaragua, under accusations of “customs fraud” that were never judicially supported. The operation marked a break point in the repressive escalation of the Ortega and Murillo regime against the independent press. Since then, the newspaper facilities were occupied by state agents and transformed into an official training center, while their journalists had to exile or face criminal proceedings. Those same journalists, says Holmann, are the ones that today, in the face of economic difficulties, start the digital publication from various countries, including Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States.
“The team we have is extremely small compared to how it was previously. All the people who are part of the team are very compromised and, thanks to them, to that stubbornness, to that apostolate that they have decided to practice, is that we move on,” says Holmann. “There are responsibilities and sacrifices that you have to do to be able to move forward with that commitment and pay your collaborators. Working from exile is an extremely difficult thing … we had to reinvent completely. We had a series of income before. For example, our commercial printing press was a very important factor of the financial part and that helped us to have all the varied personnel we had. But everything was confiscated.”
To give an idea, before your confiscation, The press It was a newspaper made up of more than 400 people, without putting distribution agencies, distributors and spokesmen. Now, at present, there are less than 50 people. A wording of 125 journalists that today is 18.
“As well as The press He lost everything, I lost everything too after leaving jail … They took everything away. I came banished to the United States with nothing. Thank God, my wife of Nicaragua and my daughters were already out. We meet outside, but everyone here makes their effort to get ahead. I do other things in addition to this (direct The press), In order to subsist, to get ahead, pay the invoices that come daily, ”says Holmann.“ On the topic of the environment, the most difficult part is, indeed, when you had a company that generated more money than you were spending. Everything is happiness. Everyone wants to be there and at the end of the year even distributed dividends, which is incidentally, the press distributed 10% with all the collaborators. Now, what dividends? That does not exist. So The press It went from being a profit for profit to be a non -profit foundation. We could say that the only profit we are looking for is to restore democracy in Nicaragua. Back to Nicaragua to rebuild Nicaragua, contribute so that Nicaragua is again a Republic, ”he adds.
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