The 20-Year-old is one of the heads of the student movement in Nicaragua, in the middle of April 2018, the protests against the Regime of President Ortega initiated. Now she is fighting from exile for democracy in their homeland.
Madelaine Caracas has not seen her mother for twelve months. Then, in mid-April of 2018, was the young student in the final year of the communication studies and painted oil paintings. As the students broke out in protests in Managua, gave them their books and joined the young people, most of the buildings on the streets of barricades and heavily armed police forces.
16. May 2018, began the first round of talks of the national Dialogue, which was broadcast live on television. Thousands of Nicaraguans saw and read heard as Madelaine Caracas is the name of your protests killed fellow students. They also saw the petrified faces of those present President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice-President, Rosario Murillo.
A few weeks later, Madeleine had to flee into exile in Costa Rica, the country that has taken in the last few months, more than 50,000 Nicaraguans.
DW: How much has it affected this political crisis personally? What have you won or lost? And you can use these things against?
Madelaine Caracas: This is a very difficult question, because the crisis affects all of us in many ways. In my case, the exile, the threats and the extent of the public exposure that have hurt me the most. It is the mental torture and threats. The fact that I am in exile and my parents have no work, have to hide and not more and when you return home, causing an emotional Stress that is hard to bear.
It touches me to know my friends in prison, while I lend at the same time international in my face to accuse. And suddenly I feel guilty that I’m still alive. It is terrible when you start to ask yourself this question: Why am I still alive?
I have also gained a lot of experience, because I never could have imagined that I would as a 20-Year-old, all of a sudden an activist for human rights. I’ve spoken in front of the European Parliament and the United Nations. I now have a very large family, as I on my travels is always the case with the families of Nicaraguan migrants under came. You are now all of my family. I now have many mothers, worried from afar to me, and I take refuge in the various countries of the world.
I think that it is in the midst of misfortune and pain of any benefits, rather, lessons. I never thought that I would have to in such a short time and so early, so much about politics, diplomacy, history and international relations.
Protests against the government of Ortega: More than 300 protesters have been killed since April, 2018
What happened in April 2018 with the students in Nicaragua? There was a sudden awakening of a social consciousness or a Weariness in the face of the balance of power in the country?
Prior to the April 2018, there was no independent, Autonomous student movement, which represented the true interests of the students. But we young people started our own role in this state. We asked ourselves why we were allowed to choose, however, there was always only the same President. In a country where election votes forged to be in the everyday violence and corruption permeates every governmental unit. A country where there is no justice for abused women, and where the army of peasants to kill, without police or judicial responses.
Many thought that we young people would be indifferent, but the country was last April, we have a pressure cooker that will explode shortly in front of it. The fire in the reserve, Indio Maíz, in the South of Nicaragua, started on 3. April. Government-supported settlers had started those fires. This triggered the first protests. The demonstrations for retirement, the environment and for women’s rights. Many of us had tired of a President who turned over everything, and never on the people heard.
What future do you see for Nicaragua?
I’d like to be optimistic, but I’m sure that the process of building a from us desired country will take many years. Because the big challenge is not that President Ortega to get rid of, but in a state with new institutions, without corruption or impunity, and a new political culture on the basis of justice.
We must lay the foundations to cope with the past so that the past will repeat and we have over 40 years of a dictatorial Regime. Nicaragua deserves peace, democracy and a shift away from authoritarianism, Mach-terrorism and corruption, towards a pluralist and diverse Nation in which we all have a voice.
Madelaine Caracas is one of the most prominent representatives of the about hours needed movement, which began in April 2018, the protests against the government. How about 50,000 of the country people left the country in the meantime.
The Interview was conducted by Gabriela Selser.
Madelaine Caracas: “I would like to be optimistic”