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france has had little rain in the last few weeks, and water levels have dropped alarmingly. spain has also suffered from the drought. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. nicaragua s veteran autocratic leader daniel ortega has been locking up political dissidents for years now. he has a new tactic mass deportation and withdrawal of citizenship from those who dare to criticize him and his family. my guest today is felix maradiaga, who was recently taken from his nicaraguan prison cell and flown to america. the good news is he s been reunited with his family after years apart. the bad news is ortega is trying to eliminate all opposition. so has resistance become impossible in nicaragua? felix maradiaga in miami. welcome to hardtalk. thank you, steve. and it s a pleasure to be back here. well, it is great to have you back on hardtalk, not least because you have just emerged from more than 600 days in a nicaraguan prison. was it a surpr ....
First time of our arrest. the first year, we were in complete isolation. 0ur food was very bad. and not only that, but we were not allowed to have any contact with ourfamily members for as long as a0 to 90 days. meetings with our relatives took place under police surveillance, but towards the end of last year, our families were allowed to bring food to many of us. and that was a small signal, a hopeful one, that something positive could happen outside. but at that time, as it was my case and the case of the other presidential candidates arrested and the other activists, we already had been condemned to many years in prison, in my case, 13 years sentence. this is a difficult question in a way, but i am very mindful that one political prisoner who was held in the same wave of detentions as you, hugo torres, he did not survive. and i know the conditions you ve described, you say were awful. ....
To further dialogue between the us and nicaragua. that will be music to 0rtega s ears, won t it? well, absolutely. but i think that going back to being a strategic, he is not, because he erased with one hand what he wrote with the other. i think that if he had not done things such as keep in prison, bishop alvarez in prison and other 35 political prisoners, stripping us from our nationality and so on. i think that probably dialogue would be on the table from the perspective of the american governments and other governments. but i can be certain that we are not going to see any relaxation of international pressure precisely because 0rtega has proved that he is focused on his own building, his dynasty and on keeping the police state. so 0rtega, if anything, is radicalising and that needs to be very clear. and yet if one looks at the international reaction to what 0rtega has done, as you say, with the stripping of the citizenship, notjust of the 222 prisoners released, ....
A candidate who could challenge ortega and rally all of the opposition. but you fail. i mean, you, ithink, represented the blue and white party. there was a citizens alliance, there were a bunch of other political parties. you couldn t find a way to coalesce, to unite, to send a signal to the nicaraguan people that here is one candidate. all of you can get around to get rid of 0rtega. why did you fail? i respectfully disagree. if i remember that in february of 2021, the five main candidates at that time signed an agreement to go into a primary elections. and we were about to go into a primary elections to select a single candidate. we were all put into prison. we had until august the second to reach a single candidate. and that was the reason why 0rtega put us all into prison. and you re right, in one point, we didn t move fast enough. that s a political mistake. but we were on the right track to choose a unified political candidate. ....
In charge of demobilisation and the reintegration of former combatants, and later, as an academic. but not only in my personal case, as someone who opposed 0rtega, those who opposed 0rtega from the platform ofjournalism, those who are student activists, human rights activists, everyone who wants to be outspoken against the 0rtega regime is persecuted and put into prison. you had a choice to make when they told you you could be released, because i believe they made it plain to you that release would involve immediate removal from nicaragua. you would be put on a plane and taken to the united states. now, as i understand it, some fellow prisoners of yours, other political prisoners, they chose not to do that deal. they refused and they are in prison to this day, including high profile prisoners like the catholic bishop, rolando alvarez. he wanted to stay. why did you decide that you were prepared ....