Lesther Aleman, Nicaraguan student leader and political activist, addresses the 16th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy
HAVANA TIMES – Good afternoon, I am Lesther Alemán Alfaro, I was born and raised in Nicaragua, being here before you is a miracle. I am a communicator by profession and by vocation I carry out political activism. Founder of Nicaraguan University Alliance, AUN a political movement created by young students. My country is currently controlled by a bloody, dynastic dictatorship.
A nation where thinking differently and demanding your rights costs: death, prison or exile. A country with more than 6.2 million inhabitants immersed in poverty and tied to the absolute control of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
On May 16, 2018, a dialogue table was set up between sectors of the opposition and the regime. Ortega was about to speak when I faced him directly, less than 2 meters away. Not with violence, but with the strength of my voice.
I was 20 years old, I didn’t know what words to use when rebuking him, but I know that I had to confront the dictator who condemned us as a nation with the truth. I managed to tell him: this is not a dialogue table, but a table to negotiate your exit, because you are a murderer, GIVE UP.
I was not wrong, the different repressive and violent strategies against the civilian population today number more than 355 murdered – mostly young people – in addition to 1,500 political prisoners who have experienced physical, psychological, emotional and prolonged torture. There are currently 121 Nicaraguans imprisoned as prisoners of conscience in “La Modelo” and “La Esperanza” prisons; without ignoring the million Nicaraguans forced into exile without the right to a homeland.
In recent history there is no precedent like that, least of all in Nicaragua. The fact is that the strength of young people cannot be stopped by a decrepit regime. The moral voice, the democratic aspirations, the peaceful vocation in the face of conflicts and the tireless fight for rights are impossible to annihilate; even in the face of the worst threats.
Those 4 minutes that my intervention lasted, six years ago, changed my life. I do not regret the costs: an exile to the United States because they offered money on my head, constant persecution, imprisonment for more than 20 months, a sentence of 15 years in prison, perpetual disqualification of all my rights that define me as a human being, and subsequently the stripping of my na
