Join us for a roundtable with the previous "Comandante 2" of the Sandinista revolutionary front of Nicaragua, Dora Maria Tellez as well as human rights lawyer Ana Margarita Vijil to discuss the contemporary human rights crisis in Nicaragua. They will speak about their experiences fighting for rights over the decades, as well as their current statuses as refugees stripped of their citizenship after being imprisoned in solitary confinement for 20 months under the current dictatorship of Sandinista leader, Daniel Ortega.
Dora María Téllez captured the imagination of the world in her 20’s as she marched on Managua, Nicaragua, in 1979, commanding a column of Sandinista guerrilla soldiers toppling the 50-year-old brutal dictatorship of the Somoza family.
She said she never thought she would live to see the triumph and help build the new Nicaragua. But she did both, serving as Minister of Health from 1985 to 1990, driven by a vision of a future Nicaragua with a universal health service.
After the Sandinistas lost national elections, she served as a national legislator from 1990 to 1995. She subsequently split with her former party, the “Sandinistas” (Sandinista National Liberation Front), over concerns about democracy and human rights, working with colleagues to build a new opposition party.
She distinguished herself over the next two decades as a historian, advocate for women’s and gay rights, and an outspoken and eloquent critic of human rights violations by Nicaraguan government of Daniel Ortega.
Ana Margarita is a Nicaraguan lawyer, political leader, and human rights activist. She is the former president, from 2012 to 2017, of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), and a member of the UNAMOS party that succeeded the MRS.
Solidarity and tenacity define her, she is a fighter who is committed to democracy and above all is sensitive towards others. These characteristics define her since she began her public life more than 20 years ago.
Ana Margarita has been a professor at the University of Nicaragua of law, human rights, and gender studies. In 2008 she obtained a Fulbright to study a master’s degree in political science at Arizona State University. As a lawyer, Ana Margarita worked in The Hague in the territorial dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia, after which she dedicated herself to politics, joining the MRS party.
In the MRS she collaborated in the campaign of Herty Lewites, a presidential candidate who unfortunately died on July 2, 2006, four months before the elections in which Daniel Ortega returned to power. In this political party, she become president (2012-2017, and her political campaign in favor of establishing a real democracy in Nicaragua was significant. Ana Margarita was imprisoned twice by the Ortega regime, most recently on June 13, 2021. She was released and expatriated to the United States on February 9, 2023
Location: Auditorium in the Harrison Institute & Small Special Collections Library
