Defiance Behind Bars: Tales of Courage and Resilience from Nicaragua’s Political Prisoners

606 days – that’s how long opposition activist Tamara Dávila spent in detention before Nicaragua’s dictator, Ortega, deported her and 221 others from the country.

Resistance Against the Dictatorship – Even in Detention

606 days – that’s how long opposition activist Tamara Dávila spent in detention before Nicaragua’s dictator, Ortega, deported her and 221 others from the country. A book documents her ordeal and how she remained resilient despite losing everything.

On February 9th, an airplane departed from Nicaragua’s capital, Managua, heading to Washington. On board were 222 passengers, emaciated and exhausted. They were political prisoners who had been arbitrarily detained by Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian regime and abruptly released without warning. Some of them had spent up to two years in the notorious El Chipote prison.

Ortega deported them and stripped them of their citizenship.

One of them was Tamara Dávila. “They took everything from me. But they couldn’t take my body, even though they could have killed me, of course. But that one square meter in the prison – that was me, my body, my mind, my inner sanctuary,” she describes her detention. “I claimed that space for myself, and it was there that I lived my resistance against the dictatorship, ensuring that I took care of myself and remained strong. That doesn’t mean I didn’t suffer. I cried every day. But I kept fighting.”

Dávila spent 606 days in a cell, in complete isolation. She was not allowed to read, she was not given any paper or pen to write, and she had no access to outdoor activities – things even the most heinous criminals are granted. Tamaras Dávila’s story, the horrors she endured, is part of the book “Libertad tras las rejas” – “Freedom Behind Bars,” which was published at the end of November.

Eleven women recount their stories in the book, sharing their resistance against the Ortega regime and what they experienced as political prisoners. Dávila reports that the women with children were subjected to psychological torture: lies were told about their families, and they were accused of knowingly abandoning their children. She herself has a young daughter. It took three months before family visits were allowed, and her daughter could not visit until over a year after her arrest.

Just like many others, Dávila took to the streets in 2018 alongside the students, participating in the social protests that were brutally suppressed and resulted in the deaths of around 350 people, according to human rights organizations.

Eight months before her arrest, her house was already under surveillance. She was visible, she rebelled. The authoritarian regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo saw her as a thorn in their side because as a feminist, activist, and part of the opposition group “Unidad Azul y Blanco,” she played a leading role.

Fear of being forgotten

Journalist Wilfredo Mirando Aburto is one of the editors of the book. He knows many of the political prisoners and has written extensively about Dávila’s resistance. He himself was compelled to leave the country due to his work and criticism of the regime. He now lives in neighboring Costa Rica.

The goal of the book is to create a historical memory – “especially at a time when there are so many global crises, in Gaza, in Ukraine. There is a great danger that Nicaragua will be forgotten or that the situation will be normalized by the international community.” A book raises awareness because these atrocities are still being committed. There are still 95 political prisoners to this day.

Currently, there is only an online version of the book, and a publisher still needs to be found. All the women were interviewed by renowned journalists and authors, including Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli and author Sergio Ramírez, who are also living in exile in Madrid.

“We will continue.”

Each story has its own style, format, and tone. Each woman’s story demonstrates a different facet of Nicaragua’s history, the journalist says. Former guerrilla fighter Dora Maria Téllez, who once fought alongside Ortega against the Somoza dictatorship, also shares her voice.

Former allies have turned into fierce adversaries.

Since Dávila’s release, she feels an even stronger commitment to carry on her struggle. Her daughter is now by her side, having illegally fled across the border to Costa Rica with her mother. Dávila does not want her daughter to endure the same experiences she has: living under a new dictatorship every 40 years. “Now more than ever, I will fight for human rights. We will persist in building international pressure to compel Ortega to initiate democratic reforms.”