An eventual victory of the student movement against President Daniel Ortega by peaceful means would open up the possibility of restoring institutions in Nicaragua, Sergio Ramírez, Cervantes Prize 2017, said in Mexico today.
If a change is achieved through peaceful means, through civil resistance like the one that has taken place since April 18, “we will have opened the doors of a different solution for the country in which it would be possible to restore institutions”, affirmed Ramírez at the International Book Fair (FIL) of Guadalajara.
The writer added that the Central American country needs “strong institutions that defend democracy” and not depend on the will of a few people.
“When we turn the tables on the history of Nicaragua and make institutions stronger than people, we will have begun to solve the problem of democracy, which is what everyone aspires to,” he said.
The narrator, who dedicated the Cervantes to the students of his country, pointed out that his movement has developed without weapons, without “political flags”, or “ideological or partisan programs”, but as “a struggle for the restoration of freedom and democracy”.
Ramírez participated in the Guadalajara Book Fair in a dialogue with the narrator and compatriot Gioconda Belli about the political situation in Nicaragua and agreed that it is possible that there is a “peaceful solution and dialogue” to this crisis.
The protests against Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, started because of failed social security reforms in April and became a requirement for the president’s resignation after 11 years in power.
“The possibility that Ortega’s regime disappears tomorrow is not a matter of will, but of political possibilities, as young people and the people in general have opted for unarmed and peaceful struggle, what is imposed is a peaceful solution”, he claimed.
The author of “Margarita is beautiful the sea” warned that there must be “a national dialogue that sets a democratic transition” and that the Ortega government has to “open up to a negotiated solution because the country does not admit another way out”.
There must also be “transparent elections in which people decide what government they want”, which are supervised by international observers, new electoral laws and electoral authorities “in which all the world trusts”.
Belli said that since the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy recently formed the “blue and white unity” where the forces that have participated in the protests meet with the intention of making a future project for the country.
“With the level of repression there is no visible heads, but that does not mean that a proposal for the future is not being worked on and this has to do with how to pass peacefully and reach that dialogue,” he said.
The author of “Skin inhabited” said that this dialogue will come “by force of facts”, although President Ortega refuses to do so.
“It will be for the hard thing that is going to happen in the country at the economic level and that dialogue has to leave important concessions in terms of being able to have clean, transparent and monitored elections and that is the aspiration we have,” he stressed.
The 32nd edition of the Mexican FIL gathers 800 authors and 2,000 publishers from 47 countries who will exhibit more than 400,000 titles during nine days. (EFE) .-
