‘The [Ortega] regime is willing to kill’, says wife of Nicaraguan activist

In a statement, the Nicaraguan government said that Maradiaga “is being investigated for getting involved in illicit activities through the Liberty Foundation or Foundation for Liberty and for being a threat to the Nicaraguan society and the people’s rights.” The statement also says that he will be detained for 90 days while the investigation continues.

Ortega, a leftist, former revolutionary whose Sandinista rebels overthrew Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in the 1970s, is seeking to win a fourth consecutive term on November 7. The 75-year-old former revolutionary leader has governed the Central American country since 2007 and previously ruled the nation between 1979 and 1990, the last five years as an elected president.

It’s not the first time Maradiaga has accused the government of targeting him. In 2018, government agents raided and later shut down the Institute for Strategic Studies and Public Policy, an NGO then-led by Maradiaga. In the context of the 2018 anti-government protests that left more than 300 people dead, the 44-year-old was twice stopped and beaten by police.

“We know that the regime is capable of doing anything. It’s not that people don’t want to protest on the streets anymore. It’s that the risk is immense. The regime is willing to kill,” Valle said.

CNN requested comment from the Nicaraguan government but received no reply. The Nicaraguan government hasn’t talked to independent media in years, save notable exceptions, and government institutions do not grant interviews, choosing instead to issue written statements.

This time Maradiaga was seemingly prepared for the possibility of being captured by the government, given that Ortega has in recent days unleashed iron fist tactics against would-be presidential candidates as well as some of his fiercest critics.

In a previously recorded video published after his detention, Maradiaga sent a message to his fellow Nicaraguans.

“Brothers and sisters from Nicaragua: If you’re watching this video it is because I have been detained by the Ortega regime. As I’ve always said, my conscience is clear just as much as those of the more than 130 political prisoners who resist from the dungeons and who are prisoners of conscience simply for having a different ideology,” Maradiaga says in the video.

The US responded Wednesday by slapping new sanctions on senior members of the Ortega regime, including his daughter and the nation’s central bank president.

Valle, a former beauty queen and TV host, hopes other countries can join with the US in applying pressure to Ortega, because “the whole world is increasingly realizing what we’re living in Nicaragua and I’m sure they will also do something about it.”

“Otherwise, we’re going to really end up like other countries. Let’s take a look at Venezuela’s case. They [the international community] dragged their feet and look at the situation they [Venezuela] is in now; not to mention Cuba whose playbook is the one currently being used in Nicaragua,” Valle said.

Valle, who has been living in exile since 2018 in the US with her and Maradiaga’s seven-year-old daughter, says she’s deeply worried about Nicaragua’s future and the possibility of new violence much like the anti-government, deadly riots that rocked the country in 2018.

“Let’s remember that Nicaragua is a country that went through a very painful civil war that destroyed the nation. More than 50,000 people died. Some people would like to say that with regimes like these are bound to end with violence,” Valle said. “And that’s precisely what we don’t want. We don’t want any more bloodshed.”