Spanish culture overturns with Sergio Ramírez

Mario Vargas Llosa and Sergio Ramírez participate in the Literature and Latin America dialogue at Casa América.

Spanish culture has turned to Sergio Ramírez.

The Nicaraguan writer continues to receive support in Spain after Daniel Ortega, president of Nicaragua, ordered his arrest last Thursday, a decision that came after the publication of his latest novel,

Tongolele did not know how to dance.

despite the fact that it has not come to see the light in his country.

Ramírez recounts in that book the 2018 protests, in which it is estimated that more than 300 protesters died.

Last Saturday, the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) dedicated a statement in support of Ramírez.

A day later, more than 250 writers and artists joined in supporting the Nicaraguan through a letter in which they rejected "the persecution carried out by the Government against him."

And this Monday in Madrid, the author has received support from both the Cervantes Institute and the Casa de América, where he has been present at various events.

In the first, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has dedicated a few words of support to him.

In the second, the audience has given him a standing ovation to convey their warmth.

More information

• Nicaragua, the Central American 'gulag'

• Daniel Ortega vs. Sergio Ramírez

Ramírez has participated this Monday with Leonardo Padura in a tribute to Rubén Darío in which the Cervantes Institute has opened its Caja de las Letras to house the

in memoriam

legacy

of the Nicaraguan poet.

There he has received the support of Minister Albares: “Literature represents freedom.

I want to pay tribute to the great writer who is Sergio Ramírez.

A moral and intellectual reference, for the quality of your work and for your personal activity ”.

The writer has appreciated all the support received and has admitted that he is "truly overwhelmed" by "the amount of countless endorsements" he has received from writers and academics. “It makes me better cope with the worst circumstance someone can go through, which is exile. Knowing that you cannot return to your country, that its doors are closed by the hand of an enemy dictatorship of books ”, he specified. The writer has assured that he is being persecuted “for a novel that reveals the outrage and violation of human rights against dozens of unarmed youth in 2018 in Nicaragua. This is the main reason why the book and my detention were ordered to be detained, in which all possible crimes were put on me ”. The writer is accused of money laundering, property and assets;undermining national integrity, and provocation, proposition, and conspiracy.

"Scandalous outrage"

That same afternoon, at Casa América, Ramírez inaugurated the

Centroamérica Cuenta Festival

together with the Nobel Prize for Literature Mario Vargas Llosa. The Peruvian-Spanish writer has interrupted the order of the event a few minutes after starting and has taken the floor to ask for a tribute to Ramírez. “He has just suffered a scandalous outrage that has prompted many responses in the world and I think we should pay tribute to him. He is a magnificent writer, but he has also participated very actively in the political life of his country and has always done so in a moderate way, which is the one that is most associated with his convictions, his character, his way of being. to be and also to his way of writing ”. Vargas Llosa has charged against President Daniel Ortega for the arrest warrant against Ramírez: “He has been miraculously saved from being in jail with the many other opponents that this sinister couple has, Commander Ortega and his wife.I invite you to pay tribute to Sergio Ramírez in this difficult situation in which he finds himself. We are going to make up for it with loud applause. " The Gabriela Mistral Amphitheater has stood up to give a standing ovation to the Nicaraguan, who has been moved.

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With his usual sense of humor, Ramírez has confessed that he would like to know "what it will be like to be a Swedish writer or a Finnish writer", countries with a remarkable "political mildness where the prime minister can go to work by bicycle.

This in Nicaragua is surreal, because when Ortega goes out onto the street he carries a convoy of 40 or 50 vehicles and a helicopter flying overhead ”.

The writer lamented that “this struggle between institutionalism and caudillismo has not yet been resolved in the 21st century in Latin America.

Something that is still pending in our history.

And that is the key to my book ”.

Vargas Llosa is another of the more than 250 artists and authors who have signed the statement in support of Ramírez.

They subscribe that the arrest warrant "is an attack on freedom" and is "an insult to intelligence."

They accuse the Nicaraguan government of "fabricating" charges against him "and against almost 40 political prisoners."

The RAE also protests "with all energy" in its statement against "the arrest warrant issued by the Nicaraguan prosecutor's office against the academic, corresponding member of the RAE and writer."

From the institution they emphasize that Ramírez is "one of the most lucid thinkers and writers in the Spanish-speaking universe, a Cervantes prize and a brave fighter for freedom in his country."