Ana Margarita Vijil
“My flower, Ana Margarita”
“My flower, Ana Margarita”
“My Flower, Ana Margarita, I imagine you as sad as I am this day. The truth is, since they kidnapped you, every day for me is cloudy, even though the sun shines and burns”, thus begins the letter that on May 30 of this year her mother, Doña Pinita Gurdián, wrote to Ana Margarita Vijil, who has been arbitrarily detained by the Nicaraguan regime since June 13, 2021.
“Doña Pinita”, as she is known in Nicaragua, but whose name is María Josefina Gurdián, suffers from cancer and has seen her daughter only 7 times in the last year and it has been almost 365 days since she was taken away. She is also suffering due to the arbitrary detention of her granddaughter Tamara Dávila.
Ana Margarita Vijil is 44 years old. Whenever her mother asks for her release, she reminds that she is a lucid woman, who remains firm despite the torturous conditions in which they have her in and in May, the last time she saw her, she added: “she remains without a drop of resentment ”, against her kidnappers.
When she was free, Ana Margarita described herself as a defender of human rights and predicted that she would continue to carry out this work for the rest of her life. Since her youth, she liked to participate in volunteering and different social projects.
When Hurricane Mitch hit Nicaragua in 1998, Ana Margarita organized a collection to help people in communities that had been severely hit by the floods.
In her university days, she decided to join politics, which she described as an activity “to serve” and not to achieve the objectives of traditional politics, so far removed from that service to society, and so she ended up studying law and became interested in human rights. She even contributed to the defense of Nicaragua while she was working at the Nicaraguan Mission in The Hague in a lawsuit against Colombia.
During the 2018 crisis, he stood firm working on the issue of social rights and also participated in the demonstrations to demand the resignation of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. That year she was detained for the first time, in March 2019 she was detained for the second time and in June 2021 they took her away and did not release her anymore.
Ana Margarita is a woman with health conditions that require a healthy diet, which is not provided in the prison where she is confined in for asking for freedom for Nicaragua. She suffers from psychological torture, and, like other political prisoners, she does not see the light of day from the dark jail where she is confined. In prison, she is at serious risk, facing the possibility of irreparable damage, as established by the Inter-American Commission by granting her Precautionary Measures No. 593-21 on August 30, 2021 and months later, on November 4 of the same year, the Inter-American Court granted her Provisional Measures, ordering an immediate evaluation of the possibility of granting alternative measures to deprivation of liberty.
Judge Karen Vanesa Chavarría sentenced her to 10 years in prison on February 4, 2022 for the crime of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity.” She also disqualified her from holding public office. On May 18, 2022, the sentence was confirmed by a Court of Second Instance.
From her computer, “Doña Pinita” does not stop imploring for the release of Ana Margarita, her flower. She begs to see her again in freedom and closes her messages by saying: “Nobility is part of your essence and although today I am not allowed to give you a kiss face-to-face, I send you that kiss that I send you day and night through the wind and the union of our hearts. I love you with all my soul”.
Freedom for Ana Margarita Vijil!
We demand to the Ortega-Murillo regime: Free Nicas Now!
