Enrieth Martinez
"Before the April uprising, we were all acting individually. But then we took to the streets spontaneously, convoking ourselves through social networks and support groups. We discovered that we want to and that we should be active in the rebuilding of our country. We have been actively participating [ever since] and our agency* has helped shape the rising of a great movement to oppose Ortega, but we realize that the change we seek only begins with his exit."
Enrieth Martínez, a member of the University Coalition present in the National Dialogue, analyzes the "revolution" that seeks to get Ortega out of power (In Spanish)
I think these protests claim for justice and democracy, but they also claim for our history. Take it from their hands and tell them that our history was not made by the FSLN but by the Nicaraguan people. So yes, this is a revolution, in every way. It is a revolution that tries to be civic. That tries to take back lost spaces, try to recover the memory, try to recover symbols. It is a revolution.
WHRD Enrieth Martinez is a Sociology student, feminist activist and member of the Comité Pro Liberación de Presas y Presos Políticos (Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners) of Nicaragua. She joined the student protests since the Indio Maíz fire and the Social Security reforms, taking an active role in the coordination of the student movement through Coordinadora Universitaria por la Democracia y la Justicia, which she co-founded. Enrieth Martínez Palacios became one of the public faces of the protests and represented the University Coalition during the failed 2018 dialogue between the social opposition and the government. At the time, pro-Government unknown people prepared a difamatory video with a photograph of Enrieth Martínez and a false audio where she allegedly denounces that the university students part of the National Dialogue have a pact with the MRS party to allow civil union between people of the same sex. In August 2018, she was captured with a group of student activists in San Marcos, Carazo, and freed after being interrogated and searched.
#MESENI de la @CIDH supo de denuncias de @CudjNicaragua sobre intimidación a personas que iban a manifestarse pacíficamente en Managua. Estudiantes habrían sido detenidos. Exigimos al Estado de #Nicaragua que informe el paradero de los jóvenes y garantice su integridad física. pic.twitter.com/0ChpiuEvAU
— CIDH (@CIDH) 25 de agosto de 2018
Since 18 April 2018, when the political and human rights crisis began in Nicaragua, more than 700 people have been arbitrarily detained and subjected to criminal proceedings for their participation in demands for democracy demand and their work in defence of human rights, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
More than a year after the beginning of the crisis, the situation of political prisoners has seriously worsened during the time they spent in Nicaraguan prisons, due to the lack of dignified conditions, deficient medical attention, violence and acts of torture.
