In April 2018, the government of Daniel Ortega decreed a brutal repression to stop the protests of social movements. The Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights documented the killing of 326 people during the three-month revolt. But state violence did not start or end in 2018. The feminist movement has been autonomous, since Ortega came back to power, who has most strongly denounced his authoritarianism, his neoliberal policy, his conservative discourse, his rights violations. Associations used to making noise in the streets, putting pleasure and humor at the center of militancy, have to work today in secrecy. Many of its members live abroad. Allison Belli and Geni Gómez cannot return to Nicaragua, while political militancy continues to be sentenced to prison.

What has this prize contributed to your struggle?

Allison Belli: It is the recognition of decades of struggle in defense of women's rights. It also gives us the opportunity to talk about the human rights violations taking place in Nicaragua and the situation of political prisoners. We invite the Basque society to participate actively in the complaint.

Geni Gómez: It has given us moral protection. This last stage is being very frustrating, because at some points it seemed that the exit was close, but the Government has given new impetus to repression. We have fewer and fewer partners in Nicaragua. Therefore, any gesture that sends a message of “we are with you” helps to maintain hope. In addition, the award of the prize has a point of rebellion, as the vice-president, Rosario Murillo, has ordered by decree to ask the Government for permission to collect all the prizes. He has outraged them that Sergio Ramírez, upon receiving the international awards, has denounced in his speech the murders of his students. Of course we are not going to ask for permission.

You received the Ignacio Ellacuría Prize on October 26. You pointed out that the date is significant.

Gómez: On October 26, 2006, the figure of therapeutic abortion, existing in the Penal Code since the end of the 19th century, was repealed. It was an agreement between all parties with parliamentary representation, but led by the Sandinista Front, which was the cornerstone of the pact that allowed him to win the elections seven days later. In return, the PLC (the Conservative Liberal Party, then in power) lowered the percentage of votes that was required to win without a second round, and the evangelical and Catholic churches removed the veto from the FSLN. Women's lives and rights were the currency of exchange. They argued that it was only a strategy, but the following year, with the reform of the Penal Code, abortion was totally banned, without exception.

Belli: It was the beginning of a cycle of setbacks against women's rights. In 2008, Murillo promoted a defamation campaign by the feminist movement and criminalized nine feminists who collaborated in the case of Rosita, a pregnant girl who needed an abortion. Then he began to say that feminists are agents of the cia, that we want to destroy the family and that we damage the image of women in Nicaragua. It also tried to control the financing of development cooperation received by the feminist movement and to create a parallel movement of women, but it failed to do so.

The feminist movement has been the first to denounce the authoritarianism of Ortega y Murillo, and the second to do so.

Gómez: The Front has tried to control all social movements except the women ' s movement, which opted to build its autonomy at the end of the Revolution. In 1998, when Zoilamérica (Narváez, daughter of Rosario Murillo) denounced Daniel Ortega for sexual abuse, he received our support. Since then, we have been in the spotlight of Ortega y Murillo. In recent years, more autonomous movements have emerged: farmers (because the Government granted an unknown Chinese company the licence to build an interoceanic canal), pensioners with student support and young people in defence of the environment. In April 2018, during protests from these sectors, armed and motorized Front supporters started firing on protesters. Upon hearing of the first dead, the whole country rose up.

A slogan against state repression says that Ortega y Somoza are the same. The regime has accused the feminists who participated in the Sandinista Revolution of being agents of the cia.

Gómez: The people of Nicaragua have always rebelled against dictatorships. Today’s feminism has its roots in the Revolution, as it allowed a radical change in the country and enabled the organization of women from all sectors. It is hard to hear that our fight is funded by the United States.

Belli: We cannot regard as left-wing a government that promotes corruption, that negotiates with the body of women, that delivers the territory to foreign companies, that is killing indigenous people. We have also denounced Ortega’s neoliberal measures, the agreements with the business sector and the deactivation of the trade union struggle. In addition to the organized movements, in 2018 a spontaneous movement to condemn the murder of the young people came to the streets, as many of them detected a red line there.

Is there any sector that requires intervention by the United States, such as Cuba?

Belli: I don't think so. We call for international pressure to enable Nicaraguans to resolve the crisis peacefully and for officials involved in crimes against humanity to be punished. We asked the government to ensure a transparent electoral process at the 2018 national dialogue table, and it has not complied with it. What does the United States have eyes on Nicaragua? I do not doubt that. But, precisely because of our history of war and armed conflict, no one is asking for blue helmets to be introduced.

[Pre-election interview] The elections will be held on 7 November, but the leaders of the joint candidature of the opposition are imprisoned.

Gómez: It is important that no one accepts the outcome of these elections so that the Government is left out of all legitimacy. The closure of access to cooperation funds would be an extraordinary measure of pressure. The previous elections were dubious, as the Central Electoral Board is controlled by the Front and by the illegalization of political parties. Even though Ortega and Murillo have all the power, they are afraid, because they know that most citizens hate them today. Consequently, in May, forty people were arrested with political, economic or social leadership, including seven nominations, of which two were exiled. So they've sent us a message: if there are people of great prestige in prison, it can happen to anybody.

Belli: The leaders of the revolution, such as Dora María Téllez, who has denied any responsibility, have also been imprisoned.

Gómez: Also Hugo Torres. He was the head of the command who managed to release Daniel Ortega during the Somoza dictatorship!

They have denounced the conditions of torture.

Gómez: The three detainees have been illegally detained, left their homes during the night and have been in looting. No one has known where they were during the 1990s, so they have been technically in a situation of enforced disappearance. At the moment, it has not been possible to have any private conversation with the defendants’ lawyers. A statement by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights promoted the first visit permit of relatives in which they found that they have slimmed a lot, that they cannot sleep (some have to sleep on the light and others spend the day in the dark), that they do not have material to read or write, nor clothing and bedding. All of this is torture, because the goal is to break your physical and emotional health.

Belli: Tamara Dávila, member of the Feminist Articulation, has been locked in the isolation cell, has health problems and has been given permanent questionnaires of psychological rupture, in which she has been repeated that she is a bad mother and that her family has turned her back.

What is the current situation of the feminist movement?

Gómez: We were accustomed to freedom of expression, to mobilisation and to organizing meetings; now we have to walk underground. At the end of 2018, the Government repealed the legal personality of several entities. The last [last August] were the women's associations of Matagalpa and Jalapa. In addition, the Government has invented a law on foreign agents: whoever receives funds from international cooperation has to register and loses his right to political participation. Feminist organizations won't. In any case, we do not want to be martyrs, which is why we have prioritized strategies of protection and self-care.

What about the media situation?

Gómez: The attack on the press is brutal. They seized the most critical media facilities, robbed their teams and imprisoned journalists. Since La Prensa closed, there is no media on paper; they all work online now. The new digital media launched by young journalists have also appeared: some work from exile and others remain there, with enormous courage and difficulties.

Once again, they have taken advantage of the Ellacuría Prize to ask for the support of the political parties of Euskal Herria. What response have you received?

Gómez: We live with a lot of frustration that it is much easier to get the support of right-wing parties than of the left. It has been very hard to meet people who have an idealized Sandinista Revolution and who do not know the current reality. They do not know that the FLSN has become a family brotherhood without leftist politics that mixes anti-imperialist rhetoric with the familiar, conservative and pseudo-cyferous discourse. This trend is very damaging in our environment, as the young protagonists of the revolt relate left to repression and right to external protection. This conviction has reinforced conservative thinking in the opposition. It's a challenge for us, because feminists have been continually challenged in the opposition. In any event, in contradiction with the contradictions, we must prioritise unity in favour of human rights. For feminists, “democracy” is not just voting, but we want to fight on the street, without risking life.

Belli: The Basque feminists who support the case of Nicaragua have tried to obtain the support of EH Bildu and Elkarrekin Podemos, but the silence has been total. Within EH Bildu there is a strong block that refuses to talk about the issue and blocks institutional statements. Those who have told us privately that Nicaragua is barbaric have not dared to speak in public. In the case of Unidas Podemos, Ezker Batua exerts pressure because he publicly defends the dictatorship.

What is the situation of the exiles in the Basque Country?

Gómez: It's terrible. Of those seeking international protection, very few have been detained after having passed a system full of obstacles and ill-treatment. They have a work permit, but it is difficult to find quality employment, as their work experience is not recognised. On the other hand, the majority who have not achieved this status have to live without a residence permit, in a precarious situation that the pandemic has exacerbated further. They have found the solidarity of the Nicaraguan community that has arrived earlier.

Belli: The Aliens Act means that most women are engaged in domestic and care work, under exploitative conditions, with unsustainable hours and suffering from racism. An exiled woman told us she doesn't have time to do activism, because she gets exhausted from her work.

Have you received the support of the feminist movement here?

Belli: It is also true of the feminists who have to do with Nicaragua, the majority of whom are older. On the contrary, most young feminists have nothing to do with our people and, therefore, we are not among their priorities. In Spain we have suffered face to face aggressions within the feminist movement by militants of the Communist Party.

Gómez: In the 1980s, Nicaraguan feminism was a reference in Spain. I was born in Madrid and went to Nicaragua in 1989 with a brigade of women from the Rural Workers Association, where I stayed two years later. Now the feminist movement in Spain has grown a lot and it costs a lot more to connect. We welcome the fact that the fight to decriminalise abortion in Argentina has succeeded here, but that should also encourage us to support our fight, as abortion in Nicaragua is completely punished. But we have not achieved that attachment.

What are you missing from Nicaraguan feminism?

Gómez: Go out in the street, scream. Batukada feminist of Matagalpa. Now I find it very hard to know that they are quiet.

Belli: Also the feminist cabaret theater. Our feminism is very creative, it's given us a lot of pleasure, laughter and good friends.