"Daniel Ortega acts like a king of the Middle Ages" | Culture

Tracks the escape Gioconda Belli in his last book, The fevers of memory. He moved there in the nineteenth century to tell the story of a French nobleman who must leave his country and find a new identity far from him. A novel that allows him to reflect on the present at the same time; about the exodus of thousands of his compatriots to Costa Rica in the face of instability in Nicaragua. The voices of those who leave are echoed in this work and echoes of the author's own past are also heard: those 70s in which she was obliged to go underground to fight against the Anastasio Somoza dictatorship. Four decades later, he fights again against a regime, now that of Ortega, which for seven months now -when the protests began- a long trail of death and repression has been left.

Question. Have you used this novel to reflect on your past?

Answer. I have had an experience very similar to the one told in the book. I have lived in another country and had to use another language. I have also been in hiding and I have been forced to change my name [para no ser reconocida]. He called me Laura, Barbara, Justina ...

P. Are you worried repression against journalists and feminist leaders What has happened in recent weeks in Nicaragua?

R. We feel powerless. They repress us with weapons and also do not allow us to manifest ourselves. Before [de que prohibieran las protestas] there was a way to respond to [los muertos y los encarcelamientos]: go out to the street, show that we were united. It was very important to be able to see each other's faces. I am concerned about the great aggressiveness with which the Government is acting and that they try, through propaganda, to leave in two countries. On the one hand we are the coup plotters and on the other the good ones, according to them.

P. Do you think you can end up in an armed confrontation?

R. Yes. They are not acting as statesmen, but as monarchs. They believe that the country is their fief. They have an attitude of kings of the Middle Ages. They consider that the State is only the two of them. His only motivation is to stay in power. They are not interested in the welfare of the people.

P. Are you trying to impose fear?

R. Yes and, in fact, each day they are more like the somozism that governed through fear. They should know, from their own experience, that this only works for a while and the level of rejection of the Government is already enormous. I had never seen people with such strength.

P. The US sanctions against Rosario Murillo will they end their dream of being president?

R. That dream is already caput (laughs). She has taken charge of destroying it herself. People have already seen their lack of compassion and their interest in making Orwellian propaganda. It is dedicated to saying that the truth is a lie and that the lie is true. People have lost respect for Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega.

P. What was cut short so that the Sandinista revolution would end like this?

R. The people who intervene in the processes count a lot. You can have a great idea and end up leading a Stalin or a Hitler. In the case of the Ortega there was a great lack of scruples from the beginning. I say it because I was working with them and I left. They were the philosophy of the end justifies the means and that explains a good part of what has happened. As Sergio Ramírez says, they have the mentality of a Jurassic left that is also military.

P. Do you have hope that the conflict will end soon?

R. We will move forward. I am optimistic by nature and I am glad that it is so. What we have lived in these months has been the most revolutionary, so [la solución] it will take but Daniel Ortega is already defeated. It has lost the support of the population and international legitimacy. That does not recover, he is already a tyrant in history.

P. They had to cancel the Centroamérica Cuenta festival and the Poesia International in Nicaragua, how is the country's instability affecting the culture?

R. Yes, it shows because many activities revolved around these two festivals. However, a culture of resistance around music and literature is emerging, although it needs more time. In addition, the meme has become a kind of art.