Nicaraguan Artists Resisting Authoritarianism 

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The Glances of Resistance exhibition emerged in 2018 as a clandestine act of creative defiance against Nicaragua’s escalating authoritarianism. Organized by exiled artists in Germany, this project documented state violence through photography, political cartoons, and installations, premiering in Berlin before expanding to Paris and Cologne. Its most iconic piece, "Metal Trees Uprooted," captured the destruction of Managua’s ornate "Trees of Life"—steel sculptures installed by Vice President Rosario Murillo that became symbols of regime excess. Protesters tore down over thirty of these structures during the 2018 uprising, an act immortalized in photographs by Esteban Felix that symbolized the reclamation of public space from state control6.

Uprooting the Trees of Life
This exhibition marked the beginning of a global movement to preserve Nicaragua’s protest art tradition amid systematic cultural repression. Nicaragua’s descent into authoritarianism began in April 2018, when protests against social security reforms ignited nationwide demands for democratic change. The Ortega-Murillo regime responded with lethal force, killing over 300 civilians and imprisoning thousands in a crackdown that the UN Human Rights Council later classified as crimes against humanity34. By 2025, constitutional reforms had abolished judicial independence, granted the executive unchecked power over cultural institutions, and institutionalized preemptive censorship through mechanisms like the Registry of Artistic Activities (2024), which required state approval for all public performances3. Laws such as N°1055 (2020) criminalized dissent as "treason," while N°1040 (2020) restricted foreign-funded artistic projects, effectively dismantling Nicaragua’s civil society38.

From Protests to Repression
Artists became prime targets of the regime’s repression. Musician Josué Monroy faced detention in 2022 after criticizing the government during a concert, later exiled to Honduras with his name on a security blacklist barring reentry5. Carlos Luis Mejía, co-founder of the band La Cuneta Son Machín, was intercepted during a layover in El Salvador and exiled to the U.S., separated from his family for three years17. The regime’s tactics extended to denationalization—over 450 individuals, including poet Gioconda Belli and novelist Sergio Ramírez, lost citizenship under Law N°1055, rendering them stateless and stripping property rights35. Muralist Kevin Laguna’s imprisonment in 2023 for honoring Miss Universe Sheyniss Palacios exemplified the regime’s fear of symbolic acts. After his exile to Guatemala, Laguna continued advocacy work while his collaborator, Óscar Parrilla Blandón, documented prison experiences through smuggled sketches5.

Artists Under Siege
Cultural infrastructure faced systematic dismantling. The Ortega-Murillo regime confiscated over $250 million in assets from individuals and organizations, including Karen Celebertti, exiled after organizing the Miss Nicaragua pageant that crowned a protest-linked winner3. Constitutional reforms enabled these seizures without due process, while migration controls introduced in 2024 required airlines to pre-screen passengers based on social media activity, denying entry to 290 Nicaraguans—including artists returning from international exhibitions5. Digital repression reached new heights in March 2025 with the blocking of independent media under .com.ni domains and police surveillance of online artistic activity, creating a climate of pervasive self-censorship3.

The Banning of Tradition
The legal architecture of repression extended to religious and traditional expressions. Judea Easter performances—street theater reenacting Christ’s Passion—were banned in 2023, with pre-approved events canceled under vague "orders from above"5. During Holy Week 2025, police blocked 3,500+ religious processions, restricting activities to church interiors following the expulsion of 46 religious leaders, including Bishop Rolando Álvarez5. These measures reflected the regime’s broader strategy to erase dissident narratives from public consciousness.

Art, Advocacy, and International Solidarity
International condemnation surged as the artistic crackdown intensified. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) denounced Nicaragua’s "totalitarian model" in April 2025, citing arbitrary detentions and cultural censorship5. The Artistic Freedom Initiative’s Echoes of Freedom report, based on testimonies from 13 persecuted artists, documented systemic violations and urged global action23. Exiled creators sustained resistance through projects like the 2025 "Art of Resistance" exhibition, which positioned Nicaragua’s struggle alongside global movements against authoritarianism18. As the AFI emphasized, "When dictators fear satire more than sanctions, art becomes both weapon and witness"23.

The Disappeared and the Stateless
The regime’s persecution extended to enforced disappearances. Fabiola Tercero, a cultural organizer running El Rincón de Fabi book exchange, vanished during a July 2024 police raid, her whereabouts unknown by 20255. Writer Freddy Quezada faced exile to Guatemala after liking a social media post about Sheyniss Palacios, later stripped of citizenship and assets5. These cases underscored the existential risks of cultural work under Ortega-Murillo’s rule.

Creativity in Exile and Secrecy
Despite the repression, Nicaragua’s artists preserved their craft through clandestine networks. Anonymous collectives like Torch Místico and Vink created protest murals during the 2018 uprising, documented by photographer Pedro X. Molina before their erasure by authorities6. Musicians adapted traditional songs into protest anthems, with bands like Ximena operating in exile after domestic bans9. Political cartoons by Molina, published internationally, satirized the regime’s censorship machinery and exile policies4.

The Global Duty to Remember
The international community’s tepid response risked normalizing Nicaragua’s cultural erasure. While organizations like PEN International provided essential support to exiled artists5, the regime’s constitutional reforms entrenched dictatorship, leaving little recourse for domestic dissent. As statelessness and asset confiscations proliferated, the global art world faced a moral imperative to amplify these silenced voices before Nicaragua’s creative legacy faded entirely38.

The story of Nicaragua’s artists—from Managua’s shattered metal trees to Molina’s incisive cartoons—reveals art’s dual role under authoritarianism: a target of repression and a vessel for truth. Their persistence highlights culture’s power to archive collective memory when official narratives seek distortion. Yet with migration controls severing ties to homeland and digital censorship rewriting history, the survival of Nicaragua’s artistic resistance increasingly depends on global solidarity.

When satire becomes more dangerous than sanctions, art transforms into resistance.

In 2018, Glances of Resistance launched in Berlin as a secretive exhibition documenting Nicaragua’s violent authoritarian turn. From fallen "Trees of Life" to banned concerts and censored murals, artists have risked exile, imprisonment, and statelessness to preserve cultural memory. As global silence risks normalizing cultural erasure, solidarity with Nicaragua’s creators is more urgent than ever.

#HumanRights #ArtAsResistance #Nicaragua #FreedomOfExpression #CulturalPreservation #ExileArt #Authoritarianism #Solidarity #CreativeDefiance

Posted
AuthorLitangen
CategoriesCensorship in Arts, Artists in Protest, Artistic Rights
TagsNicaragua, Glances of Resistance, Ortega-Murillo, Josué Monroy, Gioconda Belli, Sergio Ramírez, Bishop Rolando Álvarez