Ortega prohibits political references at concerts in Nicaragua

Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have given another twist to the authoritarian regime they impose in Nicaragua: the Ministry of the Interior (MINT) published this Tuesday a regulation to authorize, control and monitor any “public artistic activity, event or show” in the country Central American, especially concerts by international artists, to avoid political references.

Ministerial Agreement 05-2024, published in the

Official Gazette La Gaceta,

establishes that the new guideline will apply to all “natural and legal persons, national and other nationalities,” who are dedicated within Nicaragua “to the production, promotion and organization” of public artistic

shows

.

Emulating what they have done to control the NGOs that they have not decapitated, the MINT mandates the creation of a “registry of producers, promoters and organizers of activities, events and public artistic performances.”

This registry will be – like that of non-governmental organizations – controlled by the MINT.

In the case of NGOs, the requirements to register and then maintain operations become cumbersome: a bureaucracy that is almost impossible to comply with, to the point that dozens decide to cease activities.

The Ortega and Murillo regime alleges that with this registry of producers of national and international

shows

it seeks to “guarantee citizen and State security and internal order in the national territory.”

The MINT attributed several powers, the main one being “authorizing” the carrying out of any “activity, event or public spectacle that meets certain requirements.”

Although the regulations do not detail it, “failure to comply with the provisions of the regulations” would result in an infraction and punishment that, for now, they do not detail.

Political control even at concerts

Event producers consulted by EL PAÍS agreed that what this regulation ultimately seeks is to expand political control and the gag on freedom of thought even to concerts.

In the “obligations” chapter of the regulations, the MINT warns producers to “refrain from intervening, financing or promoting issues, activities or topics of internal and external politics, or activities that generate political proselytism as a result.”

Once assigned to the registry, producers will have to inform the MINT 30 days in advance about the type of event they will hold, specifying the number of people they anticipate, the type of equipment to be used, among other requirements.

Although after the sociopolitical crisis of 2018, concerts by international artists decreased almost entirely, in recent years the industry has timidly reactivated.

In March 2023, the female musical group from Mexico Pandora gave a concert in Managua.

The event was promoted and supported by official propaganda.

However, while the

show

was going on, the singers sang Nicaragua's de facto anthem:

Nicaragua Nicaragüita,

by Carlos Mejía Godoy, one of the main artists who composed the

soundtrack

of the Sandinista revolution and the protests of April 2018, and who is also exiled in the United States for his criticism of the Ortega-Murillo family.

“But now that you are free Nicaragüita, I love you much more…”

🇳🇮 🎶 🙌🏼

The @GrupoPandora and the @Flansoficial_ sing to #Nicaragua spreading the blue and white flag.

pic.twitter.com/O2yF7p2fsd

— OTONIEL MARTÍNEZ (@_otomartinez) March 12, 2023

At the end of Mejía Godoy's song, attendees shouted “Long live Nicaragua free!”, one of the protest cries banned by the regime.

At the same time, the members of the group raised the country's also prohibited blue and white flag on stage.

Among the attendees was Camila Ortega Murillo, daughter of the presidential couple, who became very uncomfortable with the performance of the song and the scream.

In addition, Pandora has a very strong connection with Nicaragua: the group has performed and launched to stardom the songs of Hernaldo Zúñiga, one of the country's unavoidable singer-songwriters and a critic of the Sandinista regime.

After the concert, Zúñiga, who lives in Mexico, wrote on his X account (formerly Twitter) that the Pandoras “left a sweet, clean, courteous and civil mark” after the concert.

“Pandora and Flans, as a gesture of gratitude, last Saturday at a concert they offered in Managua they sang the country's other National Anthem, the song by Carlos Mejía Godoy, Nicaragua Nicaragüita, also waving our flag,” insisted the author of How

do you goes my

love

Other international artists have canceled concerts in Nicaragua due to the sociopolitical situation, something that some opponents have celebrated.

National musicians censored and exiled

This new ban further expands censorship on the artistic level in Nicaragua.

In April 2022, the regime launched a hunt against national musicians and producers: arrests, banishments and deportations of young, alternative and very popular artists, who since 2018 have criticized the repression and human rights violations committed through their music. by police and paramilitaries at the service of the Ortega-Murillo.

From that point on, a plethora of musicians fled into exile after the police sent a circular to bar owners, prohibiting them from holding concerts with “several bands.”

Since then, in Nicaragua – a country with a very lively historical musical, artistic and poetic production – concerts have not been held, with the exception of certain bands that support and worship the regime.

The groups that have a “license” to be able to perform are subordinated to Juan Carlos Ortega Murillo, a guitarist who, with public resources, established himself as a kind of “patron” of Nica rock.

It was he who, according to various artists consulted, led the hunt against the musicians in April 2022. “It was revenge and many of those artists were friends of Juan Carlos, but by criticizing the repression led by his parents he felt betrayed,” a singer-songwriter tells EL PAÍS on condition of anonymity.

Currently, Nicaraguan musicians and bands are reinventing themselves in exile in Costa Rica and Spain in very complicated economic and working conditions.

While in Nicaragua what abounds are musical bands that write pieces related to the government or do not issue any criticism.

“The cultural scene inside Nicaragua basically no longer exists.

With this regulation we now seek to control even what international artists say on stage.

It is a brutal blow against culture and only reminds me of the persecution of Pol Pot in Cambodia.

The only culture allowed is the one that bows its head to the dictatorship,” said the singer-songwriter.

Follow all the information from El PAÍS América on

Facebook

and

X

, or in our

weekly newsletter

.