Since last Sunday from Costa Rica, we began to settle all the details for the success of this powerful internationalist initiative for the life and freedom of the political prisoners in Nicaragua. The first repercussions. Confluence achieved. The next steps.
By Mariano Rosa, coordinator of the International Commission
The countdown has already begun. In a few days, the International Commission will deploy its most important activities from Costa Rica to Nicaragua. In the last two days, we have been tweaking all details for the success of this internationalist initiative that begins to take flight and become a regional political impact taak, and that will also surely have derivations beyond Central America. The sympathy with the humanitarian and political purpose of the Commission is evident in every meeting with prisoners’ relatives, in every interview, in every recognition that the exile collectives send us, by different means. The Commission, with parliamentarians from Argentina, headed by Luciana Echevarría of the MST-FITU, the Argentine section of the ISL, and from the Frente Amplio of Costa Rica, together with leaders of organizations from Brazil, Mexico, Panama and the Dominican Republic, is becoming a political agenda item in the area. In Costa Rica, there are 500 thousand Nicaraguan exiles. Economic and political exile. The news coming from the other side of the border, with a new repressive escalation of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship, reaffirms in every line the orientation that gave rise to this international action.
Repercussions in the Central American press
From Monday until today, the commitments are multiplying, radio, graphic and TV media are requesting interviews to know first hand the plan of the International Commission. Each media, with its particular profile, however, does not fail to transmit a deep sympathy and encouragement to the objectives that we proposed. We noted a widespread solidarity with the struggle for the freedom of political prisoners in Nicaragua. There are a thousand communicating vessels among the Central American peoples: by history, by past struggles, by current common enemies, by shared dreams and expectations. We are being able to reach thousands of people with the denunciation of the capitalist and Stalinist regime of Ortega-Murillo, we are managing to explain its condition of false left, we are conquering from the political field of militant internationalism, respect, authority and affection for the best of the Nicaraguan resistance in exile. That has nothing to do neither with big capital, nor with the old and new crouching right wing, nor with the gringo embassy. That, which is “decoding” us, and understanding that there is another international left, which is located from a trench independent of all imperial interference, and that fights the FSLN, executioner of its people, especially of its activist youth. On Thursday in the Legislative Assembly, the “Costa Rican” parliament, we will be at a press conference with the Commission and the entire Local Support Committee, explaining the scope of this battle in which we are engaged: the life and freedom of political prisoners, as part of the struggle to oust the dictatorship and open a new path for a Nicaragua of those from below, of those who never really governed it.
Historic Caravan of Dignity, and what follows
Friday is, in a way, the “D” day of all this joint effort. The Caravan to Nicaragua, specifically, to the border post of Peñas Blancas, will be transformed into a manifestation of democratic defiance, of united mobilization, and of a powerful charge of dignity that it is up to us, humbly but proudly, to contribute to its successful crystallization. Buses, cars, representatives of more than a dozen organizations of the Nicaraguan exile, the entire Commission, more than 25 journalists accredited to be part of it… all of uswill travel 300 kilometers from the “Plaza de la Democracia” to the border. We are going to march a few kilometers along the highway and plant a flag with determination to once again demand the most basic thing: that the parliamentarians and other members of the Commission be allowed to enter the various prisons where 190 are being tortured and held hostage by the aberrant totalitarianism. The hours go by and more exiles communicate to be part of it, risking a lot, because the dictatorship is especially cruel to those who defy it. But from the ISL, together with the PRT of Costa Rica, with Alternativa Anticapitalista (the Nicaraguan section of the ISL), the MST of Argentina (section of the ISL of that country) and the very broad spectrum of resistance collectives, we have no doubts: we are taking just a first step. With the Commission making effective solidarity, international militant “body present”, the road to a powerful Permanent International Movement for the Freedom of the political prisoners in Nicaragua begins.
So far, for today. In the coming days, we will continue with more chronicles from Central America to follow the International Commission day to day
