On Sunday, November 7th, the Nicaraguan population has been called to go to the polls and vote in an event that does not meet any of the prerequisites for what could be considered legitimate elections. Instead, we see opposition parties shut out of the race and their leading candidates imprisoned, more than 150 political prisoners including important human rights defenders and feminist activists, dozens of feminist and human rights organization and independent news media illegally closed down and expropriated, over 100,000 Nicaraguans in exile, the de fact abolishment of the right to protest and engage in grassroots mobilization, and people subjected to an asphyxiating climate of fear and repression. In this context we cannot speak of election; rather it is a farce designed to give the appearance of legitimacy so as to justify five more years of repression and the corrupt, neoliberal, misogynous, authoritarian dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

In this context, despite the many risks, attacks and obstacles they face, our Nicaraguan feminist colleagues and human rights defenders have never stopped raising their voices, organizing themselves and accompanying colleagues subjected to violence, demanding the decriminalization of abortion, condemning violence and femicide, building community, defending territory, and continuing to work for a more just and egalitarian Nicaragua. They do not deserve five more years of attacks, harassment, imprisonment and hate speech against them. They don’t deserve it, and no other Nicaraguan woman does either.

For all this, we are calling for international feminist solidarity to support our colleagues who are currently in Nicaragua as well as those who are in exile and to ensure that their voices of dignity and denunciation replicate and resound throughout the planet. We call on you all to join in this effort and to push for others to accompany us in the following actions:

1. DISSEMINATE the #SetThemFree campaign: Starting November 3rd, post the communication materials of the campaign in your social networks, with messages that demand the immediate liberation and respect for the integrity of women political prisoners in  Nicaragua.
2. MOBILÍZE for Nicaragua: On November 4th make a feminist presence felt in the streets, public spaces, the areas outside public institutions, Nicaraguan consulates or foreign ministries or international entities in your countries. Hold solidarity actions with Nicaragua, demanding non-recognition of the results of the electoral farce and demanding the release of women political prisoners, the safe return of refugees, and justice for all the victims of grave human rights violations.
3. JOIN IN, whether in person or online, the actions that colleagues in the diaspora and exile are organizing in different countries on November 7th, when a Worldwide March will be held to repudiate the electoral farce and the efforts to legitimize the regime.