PBI-Nicaragua accompanies the REMUPI-organized Pinolera Fair of “resistance and sisterhood” in Costa Rica

Published by Brent Patterson on February 20, 2025February 20, 2025

PBI-Nicaragua has posted on Instagram and Facebook:

“On Sunday, February 16, PBI accompanied the 41st edition of the Pinolera Fair, a space organized by the Pinolera Women’s Network [REMUPI] systematically for more than four years. In this edition, REMUPI joined forces with the Feminist Collective Las Volcánicas in the framework of the ‘Raíces que unen’ (Roots that Unite) Campaign, promoted by Oxfam Central America.

Defenders Fernanda and Egda from the Network animated the space recalling the importance of strengthening the spaces of articulation of women’s organizations, solidarity among peoples, to promote feminist economy and to promote art and culture as an expression of women’s resistance and struggle.

The fair ended with a concert, where the voices of artists from Nicaragua and Costa Rica joined the audience with messages full of shared stories between cultures, empathy with exiles and commitment to the construction of inclusive societies where xenophobia, discrimination, inequality, violence and injustice have no place.”

The Pinolera Fair

Intertextual has previously reported: “Mixtli T Córdoba has been exiled in Costa Rica for 5 years. For her, the Pinolera Fair, one of the spaces offered by Remupi, means ‘following the living flame’ of what Nicaragua means outside the territory, this being a space of ‘resistance and sisterhood’ among feminist women and activists.”

That article further notes: “According to Córdoba, what Nicaraguan women are seeking by organizing this fair is to follow their roots and cultures from a place of resistance, creating a space where their voices can be heard and their demands for freedom for political prisoners in their country can reach the ears of the international community.”

In September 2024, República18 also reported: “Fernanda Martínez, a member of the feminist organization, pointed out that for four years, the Pinolera Fair has been held every month. She pointed out that within her lines of work is political advocacy around the promotion and defense of the human rights of Nicaraguan women.”

That Republica18 article highlights: “The 36th Pinolera Fair that took place in San José, Costa Rica, on September 15, was dedicated to journalist Fabiola Tercero, who has been missing since July 12, 2024.”

Photo: The whereabouts of Tercero are still unknown.

Accompaniment of REMUPI

PBI-Nicaragua has previously explained: “The Red de Mujeres Pinoleras, also known as REMUPI, was founded in 2020 by Nicaraguan women refugees in Costa Rica, following the socio-political crisis of 2018 in Nicaragua.”

They have also noted: “The organisation accompanies and guides women fleeing state violence in Nicaragua, generating and strengthening networks so that they can sustain themselves emotionally and economically, as a strategy for resilience. It is a political space where women seek a dignified life, not only in exile but in a Nicaragua that respects all people. It is a network of solidarity, collective care, memory and struggle.”

Context

In June 2018, University of Saskatchewan professor Lori Hanson and Nicaraguan professor Miguel Gomez wrote in Briarpatch Magazine: “On April 18, university students calling themselves the autoconvocados (self-organized) launched national protests against government foot-dragging in controlling widespread fires in the Indio Maiz biosphere [a protected reserve in southeastern Nicaragua].”

Hanson and Gomez add: “At the time, the protests were organized using the hashtag #SOSIndioMaiz. And while those fires were still smouldering, [Nicaraguan president Daniel] Ortega proceeded to pass reforms to Nicaragua’s social security system (INSS) into law without consultation. The focus quickly shifted: in social networks #SOSIndioMaiz became #SOSINSS. Students joined pensioners in protest, much as they had in 2013 (#ocupaINSS).”

As of December 2022, close to 200,000 Nicaraguans have sought refugee status in Costa Rica since the state repression of those 2018 protests began.

El Pais has also reported: “In 2021, [Dora María] Téllez [a leader of the Sandinista Revolution] was one of dozens of Nicaraguan dissidents rounded up and sentenced to prison for ‘crimes against the nation’ in sham trials ordered by Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo. After surviving 606 days of solitary confinement in the dungeons of El Chipote prison, in February 2023, Téllez was taken out of her cell, loaded onto a plane, and sent into exile in the United States along with 221 other political prisoners, including her partner.”

In December 2024, citing the case of Brooklyn Rivera, a leader of the Miskito Indigenous people and now prisoner of conscience, Amnesty International called on the Nicaraguan government “to put an immediate end to all repressive practices, respect the human rights of the entire population, and end the criminalization of dissident voices.”

PBI-Nicaragua

Along with REMUPI, PBI-Nicaragua also accompanies Las Malcriadas (a feminist organisation founded in 2018 in Nicaragua by young women who come from diverse experiences of feminist activism and organising), the University Coordinator for Democracy and Justice/CUDJ (that demands justice for the young people killed, injured and imprisoned for speaking out against government policies) and the Reflection Group of Former Political Prisoners/GREX (that was formed by survivors of arbitrary detention, inhumane and degrading treatment, and physical and psychological torture).

We continue to follow this situation.