美国国家公共电台 NPR--Nicaraguan political prisoner is flown to the U.S. after spending 611 days in prison

Nicaraguan political prisoner is flown to the U.S. after spending 611 days in prison

Transcript¹

NPR's A Martinez talks to Félix Maradiaga, a former Nicaraguan presidential candidate and political prisoner, who is among hundreds of dissidents exiled and stripped of citizenship².

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega in recent days has stripped more than 300 of his political opponents of their citizenship. Felix Maradiaga is one of them. For years, he worked on reintegration efforts of Nicaraguan guerrillas and has served as the country's defense³ minister. Now he's one of more than 200 individuals who've been exiled to the U.S. Maradiaga has been out of the government since Ortega came back into power in 2007. But his civil-society work continued until a few years ago, when the opposition⁴ was gaining momentum⁵.

FELIX MARADIAGA: A massive civic⁶ protest in 2018 - I was part of that protest. Eventually, in 2021, the movement - the blue-and-white National Unity⁸ Movement - decided⁹ that I should represent that movement in a broad coalition¹⁰. So I tried to run for president. And Ortega put us all - all the candidates in the primary election - in prison.

MART?NEZ: Imprisoned¹¹ together, cut off from the world, Maradiaga and other religious, civil-society and political leaders had no idea what was ahead.

MARADIAGA: At the beginning, we were about 10 to 11 people in prison, and most of us high-profile politicians. But then every journalist who tried to speak on radio, on TV, every pro⁷ human rights activist¹² were also put into prison. Toward the end of our trial, there were about 30 to 40 people in prison just because of speaking on our behalf. And relatives of some of the prisoners who tried to advocate for their freedom were placed into arrest. An arrest warrant was placed against my wife and also against Victoria Cardenas, the wife of Juan Sebastian Chamorro, so they had to flee the country.

MART?NEZ: How did you hold it together?

MARADIAGA: Well, we had different emotional phases of all this very long journey. In the first three months, I personally lost 60 pounds. I was in the dark 24/7. I had no reading or writing materials, not even a Bible. We were not even allowed to make a single phone call during that time. However, towards the month number 19 - I was there for 20 months - they start to feed us very well. They allowed the families to see us more frequently, and prison conditions change substantially. And we knew that something was going to happen.

But we never imagined that one day guards will suddenly come to our cell in the middle of the night, ask us to dress, put us in a bus that - with the windows completely shut down and covered so we could not see outside. We were in handcuffs. We looked embarrassed. Suddenly, we arrived at the airport, and the guard says, you have to sign this one-liner that said, I - in this case, Felix Maradiaga - voluntarily leave the country to the United States. And we walked to the tarmac of the airport, and there is this scene of American diplomats¹⁴ from the State Department, and they said, you are free now. I cannot describe how emotional it is. And I've seen that in movies. And, you know, we never imagined, as a Nicaraguan, that a foreign government would come and take us to a free land.

So we have boarded the plane. We remain quiet for a few minutes. And then we just sang the national anthem¹⁵, start to pray, and we heard this voice of this American diplomat¹³ saying, we're flying to Washington, D.C. And it's very hard to describe this reflection with something that, for me, is very powerful. I, myself, was a political refugee when I was a child. I crossed the border with Mexico, fleeing from the civil wars of Nicaragua. I was 12 at the time and spent time at a refugee camp in Texas. A couple of years later, when democracy was reestablished in Nicaragua, I went back to Nicaragua with the dream of establishing a life in the country that I love. Twenty years later, I'm back in the U.S. once again as a refugee for trying to run for president and trying to establish a country in which our children would not have to go through what I went through when I was a child. And now I'm no longer - according to the Nicaraguan regime - not allowed to run for office but stripped from my Nicaraguan nationality.

MART?NEZ: Now, who told you that the president had stripped your citizenship from you? I know you signed a paper, but who told you that that was going to happen to you and to the 221 other people exiled with you?

MARADIAGA: Daniel Ortega himself - as we were flying, he gave a press conference during a cabinet meeting. And in something that can only be described as Orwellian, the Nicaraguan Congress, which is fully¹⁶ controlled by Daniel Ortega, reformed the Nicaraguan Constitution to strip our - from our nationality 232 people in the plane and 94 other members of the Nicaraguan political opposition, including the expropriation of all our assets. The government has taken all our property.

MART?NEZ: You've made several visits to Washington, D.C., in the past in various capacities - as a government official, a researcher. What was this visit like for you when you were released and made it to Washington, D.C.?

MARADIAGA: Two points. First, the Ortega of today has nothing to do with the Ortega of the 1980s. And some people in Washington - not only in Washington - in other capitals of the world - had some idealistic ideas of the Sandinistas of the 1980s. So it was hard to explain that this was a new type of dictator - more sophisticated, someone that tried to pretend to be democratic, that pretended to hold elections but was controlling all aspects of Nicaraguan government, taking full control of the media, taking full control of the justice system.

But going directly to your question, in this last trip, it is clear that Ortega is no longer seen as a local problem. Ortega is perceived - as in fact, he is - as part of a global ecosystem¹⁷ of dictatorships, working very closely with Russia, working with China and with other dictatorial¹⁸ regimes, such is Cuba and Venezuela. So Ortega is a problem for the Western Hemisphere, not only for Central America. And I think that that response that we solved through our evacuation is part of the fact that Ortega is no longer outside of the radar¹⁹. He is in the eyes of the world for the wrong reasons. You know, I would like to have my government in the spotlight²⁰ for other reasons and not for the fact that we have the most extreme dictatorship in the Americas at this point.

MART?NEZ: That is Felix Maradiaga. Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega sent him to prison for treason for 611 days because he wanted to run for president.

Felix, thank you very much for your story.

MARADIAGA: Thank you for your time.

(SOUNDBITE OF STAR GAZER AND SLOH ROU'S "BIRDS OF THE WEST")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

3 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

4 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

5 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

6 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

7 pro   

n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者

参考例句：

• The two debating teams argued the question pro and con.辩论的两组从赞成与反对两方面辩这一问题。
• Are you pro or con nuclear disarmament?你是赞成还是反对核裁军？

8 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

11 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

12 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

13 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

14 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

16 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

17 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。

18 dictatorial   

adj. 独裁的，专断的

参考例句：

• Her father is very dictatorial.她父亲很专横。
• For years the nation had been under the heel of a dictatorial regime.多年来这个国家一直在独裁政权的铁蹄下。

19 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

20 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。