The international organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounced on Friday the disappearance, for two weeks, of Nicaraguan journalist Fabiola Tercero, amid a “wave of repression against the opposition press” in Nicaragua by Daniel Ortega’s government. Tercero has been “whereabouts unknown” since July 12 when “police forcibly entered” her home in Managua, where they confiscated her computer and work materials, RSF stated in a press release.
According to the NGO, Tercero, a communicator on virtual platforms and feminist groups, was subjected to “house arrest and the obligation to report daily to a police station” and to “explain” what happened to her. Her disappearance occurs “amid a new wave of repression against the Nicaraguan press,” said RSF, which also urged the authorities “to end the persecution of journalists” and “unbridled censorship.”
According to RSF, citing sources “on the ground,” the Ortega government “has intensified repression against the few independent journalists who remain in the country.” “Police search their homes without a court order,” the entity indicated, noting that among other things, they are also interrogated, their phones are searched, and electronic devices are “confiscated” from both the journalist and their family members. They are also forced to report daily to authorities.
“The information we receive from Nicaraguan journalists is heartbreaking, it resembles a horror movie. The harassment inflicted by Ortega continues to tighten the siege on what little journalism remains in the country,” said Artur Romeu, RSF’s director for Latin America. RSF points out that the government intensified actions against opponents and critics following the 2018 protests against Ortega, which, according to the UN, left more than 300 dead, hundreds detained, and thousands exiled.
The Ortega government asserts that it was an attempted coup sponsored by the United States and claims that many journalists serve “foreign interests.” The Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy (FLED), based in San José, counts 263 Nicaraguan communicators exiled since 2018, mainly in Costa Rica and the United States.
In April 2023, Nicaraguan journalist Víctor Ticay “was arbitrarily detained and sentenced to eight years in prison for covering a religious event,” the organization recalled. Nicaragua ranks 163rd out of 180 countries in RSF’s press freedom classification, in the “very serious situation” group along with Russia, China, North Korea, or Afghanistan. In Latin America, it is barely above Cuba.
