The writer Gioconda Belli in Managua, Nicaragua.INTI OCON (AFP)
Gioconda Belli (Managua, 74 years old) has accepted Chilean nationality this Thursday after the Nicaraguan regime of Daniel Ortega stripped her of hers along with 93 other people in mid-February.
In her homeland they are accused of "treason" and are considered "fugitives from justice."
The Chancellery of the Government of Gabriel Boric offered those affected to reside in the country and obtain Chilean nationality.
The writer and poet, who has lived in exile in Spain since 2020, informed
Radio Cooperativa
this morning : “I am going to take Chilean nationality.
If there is another country that I feel with all my heart as close, it is Chile”.
The Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonia Urrejola, has welcomed Belli's decision, clarifying that despite the sad circumstances, "it is an honor that this tremendous Nicaraguan poet, writer and feminist accepts to be Chilean."
Urrejola has uploaded an image to Twitter in which she is seen talking on the phone with her "dear friend" whom she said she admired "deeply."
Despite the sad circumstances, it is an honor that this tremendous Nicaraguan poet, writer and feminist accepts to be Chilean.
Excited to talk this morning with my dear friend @GiocondaBelliP, who I deeply admire.
https://t.co/5akbnml8hi pic.twitter.com/R6PZIi9gjL
— Antonia Urrejola (@UrrejolaRREE) February 23, 2023
The author of
La mujer habitada
,
El país de las mujeres
or
De la costilla de Eva
told
Radio Cooperativa
that some time ago she wrote a poem where she stated that solidarity was the tenderness of peoples.
"Today I can say that Chilean solidarity has embraced us Nicaraguans," Belli said through a voice message in which she clarified that she will continue to fight for democracy, freedom and recover a free country.
“We do not recognize that they can take away the land where we were born, the right we have to be Nicaraguans,” she said.
In mid-February and in less than a week, the Ortega and Rosa Murillo regime exiled 222 political prisoners to the United States, declaring them "stateless," and stripped another 94 opponents of their Nicaraguan nationality, including prominent writers, politicians, intellectuals, activists or religious.
Chile has shown its deep rejection of the latest maneuvers of the Sandinista regime.
The Chilean Foreign Ministry was the first of the main Latin American countries to condemn the Sandinista offensive.
Last week, President Gabriel Boric responded to a poem published by Belli on Twitter charging against Ortega: "The dictator does not know that the homeland is in his heart and in his actions, and is not deprived by decree."
The president ended the message dedicated to those stripped of their nationality by assuring that they were not alone.
Spain and Argentina have also offered nationality to the more than 300 persecuted by Ortega.
The Colombian government of Gustavo Petro offered citizenship to the writer to Sergio Ramírez who, according to Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva, has accepted it with emotion and gratitude.
Since 2018, when massive protests against the Ortega government broke out, the regime clung to repression to break up the demonstrations, with the murder of more than 360 protesters, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
He then unleashed fierce political repression to stay in power.
Tens of thousands of Nicaraguans have left the country due to political persecution and a deteriorating economy.
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