The exile of Zoilamérica: the daughter-in-law of the President of Nicaragua tells the hell she lived after denouncing her for being assaulted

"We had to Go out and do not come back. I had to explain (to my son) that very bad things happened to my father-in-law and that my mother did not believe me. And the question was: "And why did not your mother believe you?" Naritaez tells Zoel in the documentary Exile, by Leonor Zúñiga. The film, which debuted a few weeks ago at the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto, Canada, explores the suffering of a woman whose denunciation has led to one of the biggest political earthquakes of recent decades in Nicaragua.

"This judgment it involves a lot of risks and I am ready to badume them, "badured the young Zoilamérica in May 1998 to the local press, while she was in the center of all eyes after presenting a complaint for rape and abuse against her stepfather, the now president of the country, the all-powerful Daniel Ortega.

The responses to his complaint were humiliation and public mockery. A constant and virulent effort to discredit her and to question her own mental health. "Rosario told me that I wanted to excuse the people for having a girl who betrayed the principles of the Sandinista National Liberation Front," said Ortega himself in a gesture in front of hundreds of supporters.

According to Narváez, in journalistic statements, the abuses began when she I did not have another 10 years and while the family was exiled to Costa Rica. With him Triumph Sandinista and the return of Ortega and the family to Nicaragua (which implied of course more power for the political referent), the situation it got worse.

Today, Zoilamérica lives again in exile in Costa Rica. Now, with her husband, a Bolivian activist who also suffered the strong political persecution of the Ortega clan. He endures the pain that it was his the mother in charge of banishing her, a sign of loyalty that, for her, has earned her more and more power within the ruling clan. Finally, Murillo has managed to become vice president of this country, a position she occupies today.

"Losing my mother C is the hardest"Zoilamérica confessed in an interview several years ago.The reason she paid such a high price is due to the power that the man she has been accusing for decades:" Daniel Ortega was the Revolution. As a result, my accusation became an act of threat to the Revolution, "he says.

Nowadays, Nicaragua is the news of a birthday of another dark chapter of its recent history. A year ago, a series of demonstrations defeated the absolute power of Sandinista, who has 12 consecutive years of power and parallels his ally Nicolás Maduro. Not only for his "ideology" but especially for the virulence with which he attacks dissent.

The latter is expressed in alarming data. The balance of the last year's events was higher than 300 dead, 600 political prisoners reported in the last year and thousands of wounded. In addition, they are already added 60,000 Nicaraguans pushed into exile.

Added to this are complaints from crimes against humanity and the striking decision to abolish the legal status of human rights organizations that revealed the gravity of the situation in the country (including the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Center, the National Human Rights Center). organization that had counseled Thelma Fardin in his charge of rape) against Juan Darthés. In December, Ortega further ordered the expulsion of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the International Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), which denounced serious human rights violations. the man by the diet.

The story of hundreds of women

Although Zoilamérica's denunciation also resulted in a political crisis, what was proposed Leonor Zúñiga as director of the film was to give a personal dimension to the story of this woman who, also speaks for many others victims of badual violence in this country and in other countries in the region.

"For most Nicaraguan media, the story of Zoilamérica is one of the biggest political scandals of the last decades. For me though It is also the story of hundreds of women who dare to speak for justice and who are then punished, silenced or ignored by their families, churches or parties. For this reason, I made the decision to tell his story from his point of view, to show how the public aspects of the conflict with his family affected his personal life, "said the director on the film's website.

The emotional message of the director Leonor Zúñiga ends with these words: "As I finished the post-production of the film, Nicaragua was shaken by the worst political and humanitarian crisis of the last thirty years." the government's response was brutal: in four months, more than 350 people have died and tens of thousands of Nicaraguans were forced into exile, including me. "

Later, he explains: "This movie he also changed me. After my conversations with Zoilamérica, I was finally able to tell my mother that as a child, I had been attacked by a neighbor. "

In a recent interview, the director stated that the trigger of the documentary was a question: what happens to victims of badual badault when they talk? From this question, it was proposed to explore the reactions of the family, the social structure, the party, the church. "The goal was to understand the functioning of the family as a structure of oppression in terms of badual abuse," Zúñiga said during a dialogue with CNN. Sexual abuse is a form of abuse of power"

Although Zoilamerica's denunciation is prescribed, her case resonates in the collective unconscious as an emblem. Perhaps his impact is summed up in one of the most shocking sentences he utters in the documentary: "When the father-in-law is president, when the father-in-law has all the power, the whole country is your house"

Although the experience is deeply intimate, his involvement is also political. All this is reported in Nicaragua. In the country that governs Daniel Ortega "The revolutionary". "The all mighty." "Step-father".