Newspapers in Nicaragua
According to EXTRAREFERENCE.COM, Nicaragua is a country located in North America. The daily distribution in Nicaragua is relatively small (30 items per 1,000 residents, 2000). There are five newspapers. Most famous is the bourgeois La Prensa (founded in 1926, edition: about 30,000 copies), which led the opposition to the Sandin government and where Violeta de Chamorro, then president, was editor-in-chief. Other major newspapers are Nuevo Diario, founded in 1980 by a group of journalists who left La Prensa because of its right-wing orientation (about 45,000 copies) and Barricada, the main body of the Sandinists (founded in 1979, about 95,000 copies). There is freedom of expression and press, although in the 1980s it appeared that the government occasionally withdrew malicious newspapers, including La Prensa.
There are some sixty local radio stations, some twenty in Managua. In the opinion formation, the Sandinists’ Radio Sandino and the UN Radio Corporation play a major role, as did Radio Católica, which was part of the opposition to the Sandinist government and for some time was also withdrawn. Television broadcasts in seven channels, one of which (Sistema Nacional de Televisión, SNTV) is state. There are 270 radio and 69 TV receivers per 1,000 residents (2000).
Culture
According to CALCULATORINC, poetry has traditionally a strong position. The poet Rubén Darío (1867-1916), who named the National Theater in Managua, was the foremost representative of Spanish American modernism.
Priest Ernesto Cardenal is one of the most famous poets. In the 1970s, he started a school for naïve painting on the island of Solentiname. Cardenal was Minister of Culture in the 1980s, but later left the FSLN Sandinist Party. He died in March 2020, 95 years old.
Other significant writers are Gioconda Belli and Sergio Ramírez.
The satirical play El Güegüense, which is believed to have been written in the early 18th century and which consists of theater, music and dance, was put on the UNESCO list of world cultural heritage in 2005. The World Heritage List also includes the Cathedral of Léon and the ruins of Léon Viejo, one of the oldest Spanish settlements in America.
Brothers Luis Enrique and Carlos Mejía Godoy became famous for their revolutionary songs in the 1980s.
From the Atlantic coast comes the palo de mayo, an erotic couple dance danced around a bar of corn.
2020
June
Doctors kicked for covid criticism
June 10th
At least eight doctors employed in public health have been dismissed since they criticized President Daniel Ortega’s government for inadequate corona management. Doctors must make explicit support for voluntary quarantine measures. The government continues to claim that the infection situation is under control in the country. Almost no measures have been taken to curb the spread of infection in Nicaragua, in sharp contrast to most of the rest of Latin America. In addition to the fact that schools and workplaces have remained open, the national football league also continues as usual, with large crowds as a result. The official death toll in covid-19 is 55, but a non-profit organization has counted over 1,000 deaths suspected to have been caused by the new corona virus.
May
Quick-burial hides pandemic
May 18
The opposition and relatives of the deceased accuse the government of ordering “quick burials” to hide the spread of the corona pandemic in Nicaragua. According to official data, only eight people have died in covid-19 in the country, but critics believe the actual figure is many times higher. Nicaragua, unlike most countries in the region, has imposed almost no restrictions at all to try to prevent the spread of infection. Sick people are removed and later reported dead, while police prevent people from entering the hospitals. President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, downplay the seriousness of the corona pandemic and accuse the media of false reporting.
April
Easter parades despite corona
April 12
Hundreds of Nicaraguans follow the government’s call and participate in traditional Easter processions – even though the church has canceled all events due to the Corona pandemic. President Daniel Ortega and, not least, his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, are greatly reducing the danger of the virus and claim that the situation is calm in the country. The government supports beauty pageants, food competitions, concerts, markets and visits to the beaches – while large parts of the rest of Latin America are more or less quarantined. Officially, only nine cases of coronary infection have been reported in Nicaragua, and one death. However, many people suspect that the figures do not reflect reality.
Mass release due to corona pandemic
April 8
Around 1,700 interns are released prematurely due to the ongoing corona pandemic, and placed under house arrest under the supervision of the International Red Cross Committee. Among them, however, are none of the 70 political prisoners who, according to human rights groups, have been arrested because of opposition to President Daniel Ortega and his government. There is no official figure for the total number of prisoners in Nicaragua’s prisons.
March
Over 100,000 have fled the country
March 10
UN refugee agency UNHCR reports that over 100,000 people have fled Nicaragua since the unrest in April 2018, putting the country into a political and social crisis. These are people who have sought asylum abroad from persecution and violations of human rights.
February
Widened opposition to the elections
February 25th
Seven party groups form a “national alliance” against President Daniel Ortega ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in 2021, likely in November. Among the participants are two groups formed during the protests that broke out in 2018: Citizens Alliance for Justice and Democracy (ACJD) and National Unity Blue and White (Unab). A peasant movement that opposed the canal project is also included as well as a party organizing the indigenous people yatama. Also included is the Nicraguan Democratic Force (FDN), a group of former contras who fought against Ortega’s sand ministers in the civil war of the 1980s.
Local party leader killed
February 20th
Opposition Party Citizens for Freedom (Ciudadanos por la Libertad, CxL) states that José López, a leader of the party, was shot dead in the city of Mulukuku in the northeast. According to the report, López was abducted three days earlier by three armed men before he was shot dead. CxL is one of several parties that soon plans to form an opposition alliance for the 2021 election.
