Nicaragua’s Voice for Freedom

What does it take to be the voice for freedom? Berta Valle, a former television news presenter, has become a tireless advocate for the freedom of her husband, Felix Maradiaga, and the other 200-plus political prisoners under the Ortega dictatorship. Her husband’s crime was announcing his intention to run for president in 2021, which got him arrested and sentenced for treason by a Sandinista kangaroo court. Valle is now raising her voice for freedom wherever she can — for her, her husband, and their young daughter.

Transcript:

[00:00:00] C. Yulin Cruz: Protests are the lifeblood of a democracy, and in 2018, thousands of people in Nicaragua took to the streets to fight for theirs.

[00:00:19] C. Yulin Cruz: The unrest was sparked mid-April by social security reforms. The protests swelling into a broader nationwide revolt against Daniel Ortega's 11 year rule.

[00:00:32] Berta Valle: And then, you know, people just started coming out to the streets and then the first kid was killed.

[00:00:42] C. Yulin Cruz: Berta Valle, a TV presenter and her husband, Felix Maradiaga, a college professor where among those watching the violence unfold in their home country. 

[00:00:57] Berta Valle: And Felix, Felix told me this is going to be very, very bad. And that night was one of these first days that he received the calls from students telling him, Professor Maradiaga, they're killing us. We need help.

[00:01:17] C. Yulin Cruz: Berta and Felix had both been politically active for years. They had bonded over how to improve their country, but this time was different.

[00:01:34] Berta Valle: And I remember Felix, like it was around 10 in the evening, 10 at night. He, he told me I have to leave. And I said, where are you going? I'm going, I'm going to help the kids. And he left. And that was the day that I realized that all the conversation that we had before, you know about Nicaragua , about the fight that people have to, fight back to stop the dictatorship. It was really happening.

[00:02:06] C. Yulin Cruz: Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega has continued to consolidate his power over the small Central American country in the years since 2018.

[00:02:17] C. Yulin Cruz: Félix Maradiaga is now a political prisoner in a Nicaraguan jail. And Berta Valle finds herself in exile, fighting to save her husband and hundreds of others like him, while also trying to raise a daughter in a new home. 

[00:02:35] C. Yulin Cruz: Welcome back to Sheroics. We're sharing stories about some amazing women creating transformational change for the world.

[00:02:44] C. Yulin Cruz: I'm Yulín Cruz. In this episode, we're talking with a shero that inspires me with her courage and resilience. Berta Valle's story is one of separation, hope and perseverance, but it's really a love story. It's about love for one's partner, for one's family, for one's country, and for democracy itself. It's about what it takes to hold onto them during the most challenging of times.

[00:03:18] C. Yulin Cruz: What better way to begin a love story than with a celebration of poetry? As a teenager, Berta lived with her family in Ciudad Darío named after Rubén Darío, Nicaragua’s most celebrated poet. 

[00:03:33] Berta Valle: The way we celebrate Rubén Darío's birthday, it was by having this event where they elected the Musa Dariana. So it was like the muse that inspired Rubén Darío's Poetry.

[00:03:47] Berta Valle: So the girls of the city, they participate and the contest is about, saying the poems of Rubén Darío and also we have several questions about his life. And in 2000, I was participating and it happens that they invited Felix to be one of the judge. 

[00:04:11] Berta Valle: He was maybe 21, 22 years old. He already finished the university. 

[00:04:19] C. Yulin Cruz: Look at the, look at the way your smile changes. 

[00:04:23] C. Yulin Cruz: Yeah. 

[00:04:23] C. Yulin Cruz: as you think about that, as you can see , so was it love at first sight? 

[00:04:29] Berta Valle: Well, actually, actually what happened is that I won the contest that year. Actually he, there were four judges, so Felix was the one that gave me the lower score.

[00:04:44] Berta Valle: But he gave me the highest score from comparing to the others. 

[00:04:52] C. Yulin Cruz: Berta won the contest in a unanimous decision and was crowned Dario's muse. The celebrations in the city continued over the next few days. 

[00:05:01] Berta Valle: The city had a party. Like a party for all the city in the plaza and you know, the muse was there, of course, saying hi to everyone.

[00:05:16] C. Yulin Cruz: Someone else inspiring was also there. 

[00:05:19] Berta Valle: And then I was in the center of the plaza saying hi to everyone. So he came to me, you know, he say hi, and he introduced himself saying that he was part of the judge. And we start talking and we spoke like for an hour. And we exchanged phone numbers and then he left and we started talking by the phone.

[00:05:41] Berta Valle: And these calls were like, I don't know, two, three hours. So what happened? What happened? Talking about love at first sight? What happened is that I forgot about his face and I was talking with this guy. I didn't remember his face, but I really, really liked his way of, you know, thinking. And he was very smart and I love the fact that everything I asked, he knew it.

[00:06:13] Berta Valle: And one day I told him, look, there's gonna be a party in my school. It's part of the event of my graduation. Why don't you come? Then that was the first time I saw him like consciously. And I realized that I liked him. 

[00:06:30] C. Yulin Cruz: Oh, 

[00:06:32] Berta Valle: So yeah, that was the way we connected. And then of course we share a lot about our stories. We had a lot of things in common, and particularly we talked about Nacaragua. 

[00:06:48] C. Yulin Cruz: Both Berta and Felix had emerged from a country in turmoil. 

[00:06:53] Berta Valle: So we had the Samosa dictatorship for 42 years. Then 1979 came with the revolution. They call it the Sandinista Revolution, but it was actually the Nicaraguan revolution because everybody participated.

[00:07:13] C. Yulin Cruz: But a civil war between the Marxist Sandinistas and the US backed Contras engulfed the country during the 1980s. 

[00:07:22] Berta Valle: More than 50,000 Nicaragua were killed during the war. 

[00:07:26] C. Yulin Cruz: And many thousands more fled the country. 

[00:07:29] Berta Valle: My parents decided to leave the country and come to the US as immigrants, you know, they crossed the border illegally.

[00:07:38] Berta Valle: I was 10 months. So basically my mother carried me in her arms and she crossed the desert. And the first seven years of my life, I live here in the United States in California. 

[00:07:53] C. Yulin Cruz: Felix also came to the United States as a child. 

[00:07:56] Berta Valle: Felix's father died when he was eight years old. So Felix's mother took the hard decision to send him alone to the U.S. because of the war in Nicaragua. He was able to get to Florida where he stayed with a family friend. 

[00:08:18] C. Yulin Cruz: And, and that, that shapes a person, right? 

[00:08:20] Berta Valle: Of course. Imagine.

[00:08:22] C. Yulin Cruz: Having walked what I have heard is a very terrible, difficult and, and life-threatening travel all throughout the United States, that, that shapes the way the person sees life.

[00:08:38] C. Yulin Cruz: Cuz you did it in your mother's arm. Yes. Which is different. Yes. Um, but it's interesting that you both had the same experience. 

[00:08:45] Berta Valle: Exactly. No, that, and that was one of the, our first conversations. 

[00:08:49] C. Yulin Cruz: It was a formative experience for Felix. 

[00:08:52] Berta Valle: That is what I believe created in Felix, this commitment to Nicaragua, you know, when he got back and he say, I'm going to fight for my, for my country, and I won't let this happen again. 

[00:09:10] C. Yulin Cruz: I, I don't want anyone else to go through what I did and have to leave. 

[00:09:14] Berta Valle: Exactly. Basically, yes.

[00:09:16] C. Yulin Cruz: Both Berta and Felix returned to Nicaragua where peace and democracy were starting to take hold. They fell in love.

[00:09:30] Berta Valle: This is something interesting. Before we got married, Felix warned me that there was going to be always someone, which he was going to be unfaithful to me, and this was Nicaragua. Of course I didn't understand it. You know, how deep was this commitment? But but yeah, since the beginning we had this conversation.

[00:09:56] C. Yulin Cruz: Berta Valle and Félix Maradiaga were married in 2006.

[00:10:05] Berta Valle: So we got married. He keeps working in in the Ministry of Defense and I start working on TV. And I became a TV anchor. So while we were living our lives, what happened is that, Daniel Ortega went back into power and the way he went back into power was by corruption. 

[00:10:34] C. Yulin Cruz: Ortega, who had ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, ran for president again in 2007. 

[00:10:43] Berta Valle: So he won the election with 38% of the Nicaraguans voting for him, because the opposition who was really the minority was divided. And once he went back into power, the Sandinistas took control of the institutions. 

[00:11:07] C. Yulin Cruz: Ortega took further steps to tighten his grip on power. He took control of the armed forces, the judiciary and the police. He even changed the country's constitution to allow him to run again for president.

[00:11:23] Berta Valle: Felix was already a critical voice. He came out with an article in 2009 where he called the Ortega government a dictatorčship. 

[00:11:43] C. Yulin Cruz: Felix continued his criticism of the regime at the Civil Society Leadership Institute. 

[00:11:50] Berta Valle: So he founded this institute where he trained a lot of young people about values of democracy and peace and governance and nonviolence, because he already knew that that was something that they were, were, were going to take away.

[00:12:12] C. Yulin Cruz: And at and at that time, Berta, were you seeing the signs that something like what eventually happened, could happen? 

[00:12:22] Berta Valle: You know, this is the sad part because we were seeing things: how they were controlling all the institutions, how they were taking power through the police and the armies, the military. And sometimes it was very frustrating and I remember people saying to Felix that he was a little bit of like an extremist, and Felix was very frustrating saying, you, you are not seeing what I, why I already saw. This is the same guy from the eighties that wants to establish this ideology in the country, and this is going forward to that.

[00:13:11] Berta Valle: This is not a democracy 

[00:13:15] C. Yulin Cruz: Berta had also experienced firsthand the challenging political environment in Nicaragua. 

[00:13:22] Berta Valle: I was witnessing how the information was already controlled by the regime. So they own a lot of TV stations and radio. And for example, I remember once some journalists came to me and said, Hey boss, look, we found this story about this case of corruption and we can be the first to put it on air, and now we'll receive a phone call saying we have to wait because that news cannot come out.

[00:13:58] Berta Valle: And I would have to go to the journalists and tell them, look guys, congratulations. I appreciate your hard work, but we are not going to publish this yet. We are going to wait for others to publish this first. That is out of censorship. 

[00:14:14] C. Yulin Cruz: Before the 2016 election, Berta was approached with a proposal: to run for office.

[00:14:22] Berta Valle: I was young, I was a woman. I was well known because I was a TV anchor, so I realized that I can give something to the coalition to really win the elections and get rid of Daniel Ortega and his wife. 

[00:14:41] C. Yulin Cruz: She accepted the offer.

[00:14:46] Berta Valle: But some weeks later, the regime took away the political party that was going to be the, the one that brings the coalition to the election and we couldn't run. 

[00:15:02] C. Yulin Cruz: Berta paid the price for even contemplating a run for office. It became almost impossible for her to find work. 

[00:15:11] Berta Valle: You know what they told me?

[00:15:12] Berta Valle: They told me, Hey Berta, you know, we admire you. We have seen you grow as a professional, I think you're very smart, but we cannot hire you. So, and I'm like, but what is it? Why? Why accepting a nomination for a public spot in government should be considered as something bad. So I told them, look, well, it's fine.

[00:15:44] Berta Valle: I understand your position, but it is my right to elect or be elected. And then I realized that yeah, people was very comfortable. You know, they were doing business and they didn't wanna lose that. 

[00:16:00] C. Yulin Cruz: Do you think, Berta, people remain silent out of fear or out of this shock doctrine that it doesn't matter what I do, it's not going to be enough.

[00:16:13] Berta Valle: I think it's, it's a collage of a lot of things. So one is fear of course. The other thing is because of your interest, and the other one is because, yeah, maybe they feel that they couldn't do anything and it's better to be like this and not touch anything because they knew that something worse could happen.

[00:16:40] C. Yulin Cruz: And then in 2018, something worse did happen. 

[00:16:47] Berta Valle: The regime announced a reform of the social security lowering the percentage of the benefit of the elders. And you know what? People just didn't handle it anymore. So a protest started very, very small. You can see the pictures. They came out to support the elders with the flags, saying we don't want the reform. 

[00:17:16] C. Yulin Cruz: Things escalated quickly and the government cracked down on the protestors. 

[00:17:22] Berta Valle: And they beat the elders. But this time everything was being transmitted through social networks, social media, and we saw that live. So people got very angry and more people joined the protest.

[00:17:40] Berta Valle: People started saying, we want change. We don't want the regime anymore. This is enough. We want change. 

[00:17:49] C. Yulin Cruz: Weeks of protests ensued. Young Nicaraguans, including many of Felix's students, bravely took to the streets. 

[00:18:01] Berta Valle: So during the first semester, there were more than 355 people killed by the regime. We had in May, we think the biggest, the largest march ever in Nicaragua.

[00:18:18] Berta Valle: And people were walking with a flag of Nicaragua. That was it. And they get to a point where, where there was a national stadium and they killed, that day, around 16 kids with franco tiradores, with snappers, 

[00:18:34] C. Yulin Cruz: Sharp. Sharp snipers. 

[00:18:36] Berta Valle: Yes, snipers.

[00:18:43] Berta Valle: We could see the cruelty of this regime. And of course, as they mentioned already, they are unwilling to leave power, you know, and they just became a dictatorship. They were already a dictatorship, but now it's, they, they're the mask, It's gone.

[00:19:08] C. Yulin Cruz: In 2013, Berta and Feliz had a daughter, Alejandra, and just like their parents during the 1980s, they were faced with a tough decision.

[00:19:20] C. Yulin Cruz: They headed for the US hoping it was just a temporary visit. 

[00:19:26] Berta Valle: So we decided as family that it was better for me to get to in exile with Felix's mother and Alejandra, our daughter who was five years old and left Felix in Nicaragua to work by himself. So in June, Felix was here in the US denouncing in the UN in a meeting or something, the situation in Nicaragua, and all the violation of human rights. And we met with Felix and then people told him to not go back. And while we were here, 

[00:20:08] C. Yulin Cruz: Did you tell him, did you tell him not to go back? 

[00:20:12] Berta Valle: Yes. Yes. And the mother too. Like, we were like very concerned.

[00:20:17] C. Yulin Cruz: Was that a difficult decision to make? 

[00:20:19] Berta Valle: Of course it was. Imagine that I came here with a carry on, you know, like we were supposed to come for three days and then I find myself not able to go back to my country. I left everything behind. So it was really hard. And not only that, understanding that my husband was going to go back to Nicaragua and that there was a real possibility of him getting hurt.

[00:20:49] Berta Valle: But again, so you, you just embraced what you have to do. 

[00:20:54] C. Yulin Cruz: Where did you get the strength to let him go? Because it must have been hard to go to the airport and see him go off and knowing or, or at least feeling that you may not see him. 

[00:21:14] Berta Valle: I, I rely on my faith, you know, I'm Christian, so I really believe that there is a purpose, you know, a divine purpose in our lives. I really believe that Felix took this decision because he really believed that democracy and you know, this way of governance, is the best for the country. And I just understood that this was his call. So at the end I told him, look, I can, I can have you here with me safe.

[00:21:53] Berta Valle: But I just knew that he was not going to be happy. You know, he wanted to go back and be with the people. So for me, that gave me peace. And I, and I just said, Lord, I give you this man. Protect him. I trust in you and do whatever you have to do. I thought about Alejandra, that was like the hardest part. You know, because it was not fair for her, you know, she didn't ask for this.

[00:22:23] C. Yulin Cruz: The family stayed in California with Felix visiting for long periods when he could. 

[00:22:30] Berta Valle: And the last time we saw him in person was in March, 2020, because, you know, then he went back to Nicaragua, the pandemic came, he couldn't travel, but also because his passport was taken away and the regime never gave him a new passport. So he couldn't travel. 

[00:22:55] C. Yulin Cruz: Despite the setback, Felix continued to work for the opposition, and in 2021 he decided to run for president against Ortega. 

[00:23:08] Berta Valle: He told me, Berta, I don't care about the presidency. You know, this is just a way of mobilizing people. But if I die, I will die in peace. Because what I wanted for many years, it's happening right now. Which was the awakening of the people.

[00:23:32] C. Yulin Cruz: Felix's candidacy for president was short lived. 

[00:23:36] Berta Valle: So what they did is that they imprisoned all the presidential candidates. 

[00:23:42] Berta Valle: With presidential elections just five months off, opponents of Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murrilo, the vice president, are dropping like flies. 

[00:23:54] C. Yulin Cruz: Several leading opposition figures, including Felix were arrested in June, 2021.

[00:24:02] C. Yulin Cruz: The Nicaragua government has not responded to news organization's request for comment on the arrests in a statement. The government said that Mataga was being investigated for getting involved in illicit activities and for being a threat to the Nicaragua Society and the people's rights. 

[00:24:24] C. Yulin Cruz: Now he, he gets put into jail and you have no communication with him?

[00:24:29] Berta Valle: Yes. No phone calls, of course, no visits. 

[00:24:33] C. Yulin Cruz: Is there anyone of his family that has been able to see him in jail? 

[00:24:37] Berta Valle: Yes. So he was detained on June 8th, 2020. He would be disappeared for 84 days and then he got the first visit from his sister because his sister is still in Nicaragua. She and her husband, they are the only two family members that have been able to visit him.

[00:25:01] C. Yulin Cruz: Conditions in the prison are awful. 

[00:25:05] Berta Valle: Felix told his sister that he is in this cell in complete darkness. They are not allowed to receive sunlight only once every 10 day for 15 minutes. They don't have any type of reading or writing material, not even a bible that we have been asking for. They are subjected to daily interrogation, whatever they want. They sleep in concrete bed, only like with a really thin mattress. The food is really bad. Felix has lost around 60 pounds.

[00:25:57] C. Yulin Cruz: How do you make of something so difficult? And, and of course when people listen to us, they won't be able to see you as I'm looking at you right now, and from the wide smile and sparkly eyes of when you met him, now you're serious and your eyes are filled with tears as as they should be. Tell me first of all, as a woman, as a mother, as a wife, how does this make you feel? 

[00:26:40] Berta Valle: At the beginning when he was arrested, when he was detained, I mean, Felix was clear that this could happen. You know, people ask me why didn't he leave the country. Well, first of all, because he was already under, he was already under house arrest in some way, so it was hard.

[00:27:01] Berta Valle: But because he was committed, you know, he stayed there to fight the fight. So, at the beginning, when everything happened, I was very mad. I was upset, you know, because I felt abandoned. My husband decided to stay in Nicaragua instead of coming and taking care of his family. But then I start doing this advocacy.

[00:27:28] Berta Valle: I mean that right after he was captured, I came out with this press conference saying, you know, denouncing what happened and saying that we were going to do this advocacy, and you know, you don't have any option. That the life of this person is on risk, so you have to save them. 

[00:27:51] Berta Valle: It's an honor for me to appear before you today to bring awareness on the ongoing crisis of democracy and human rights in Nicaragua.

[00:28:02] C. Yulin Cruz: For the past year, Berta has tirelessly campaigned for the release of her husband and the other political prisoners in Nicaragua. She has spoken to world leaders at the Geneva Summit, the Oslo Freedom Forum, and everywhere else she could be heard. Making her case and sharing her story. 

[00:28:24] Berta Valle: In 2019, my husband, Felix Maradiaga, stood here on this same stage and said that he saw the seed of hope being planted in Nicaragua. Today he's imprisoned together with more than 180 political prisoners. I am here to continue his fight against the cruelest human rights abuses my country has ever seen in peace time.

[00:28:54] C. Yulin Cruz: Berta has become a powerful voice for democracy in her own right, and in doing so, has discovered more about herself, her country, and her husband. 

[00:29:09] Berta Valle: But then during the process of learning how to do advocacy and learning everything that he was doing, you know, working with the grassroots, working with the victims, talking to the mothers of those that were killed by the regime, you know, understanding how the opposition was trying to organize and mobilize.

[00:29:30] Berta Valle: So when I entered that world that I, I barely knew, I started understanding how important was what Felix was doing, and then I understood that it was not that he left his family, it was that he knew that his family was going to support him. And he knew that he could, could count on me. 

[00:30:02] C. Yulin Cruz: Are, are you doing this advocacy for him,

[00:30:06] C. Yulin Cruz: for you, for Nicaragua, for Alejandra, or for everybody?

[00:30:16] Berta Valle: Definitely, this had become a broader thing, you know? So of course I start doing it for Felix, right, because my husband was in prison. But then again, I, I started talking with the mother, for example, the mothers of those that were killed, and you hear them. It's impossible not to feel empathy for them and to understand that justice has to be delivered to them.

[00:30:52] C. Yulin Cruz: I had a friend that once told me, you cannot lead a normal life, so that my daughters can lead a normal life. . So in a way, you and your daughter and Felix's mother and Felix, what you are really doing is you're using your, your bodies and your mind, and your spirit as a platform for change. When Felix comes out, do you expect that you would both say, you know, our job is done, or will you say, a chapter of our lives is done. Now we need to continue the fight. 

[00:31:36] Berta Valle: Something that I have learned is that you cannot really plan for the future. RIght now, I am in this mood of living for the today. No. But what I really would like to do is to be a mother for Alejandra. That's what I wanna do.

[00:32:05] Berta Valle: She didn't enjoy, she didn't enjoy the mother that I wanted to be because I, you know, I have to take this role. So I would definitely support whatever decision Felix takes. I mean, if he get out of the prison and he wants to go back to Nicaragua and fight for Nicaragua, well, that's his decision, but I definitely will like to focus on her.

[00:32:36] C. Yulin Cruz: I want to thank you for taking this time to be with us. I want to thank you for being vulnerable because, as women we are sometimes taught that when you're vulnerable, you cannot be powerful. And, and what you have talked about is something that is very dear to us at Sheroics, the power of love.

[00:33:01] C. Yulin Cruz: Love makes you do things that you thought you couldn't do. Love makes you do things that you thought you would never do. And love gives you the strength to push on. Alejandra will look back in her life and know that her mother did what she had to do. Not only for her father, but for her, and for also you. You have proven that it is only with love that we can really lead.

[00:33:35] Berta Valle: And, and you know what something interesting also that happened is that during all this process, which is of course, it's painful, I have learned that I'm really capable of doing a lot of things that I never thought. You know, and I, and I, and, and that's been like, um, also like a healing process for me.

[00:34:01] Berta Valle: You know, I was very scared of not having the correct words or not knowing information that is relevant. But at the end I understood that it, it was not about that. It was about, what you mentioned it was about love. It's about just connecting why as humans, what is happening in Nicaragua is important.

[00:34:27] C. Yulin Cruz: It's also about taking the time to appreciate the little things in life and watching her daughter grow up to be a powerful woman herself. 

[00:34:40] Berta Valle: So at the end you have this girl that is just growing and, and she has her character and the, the way she speaks. She says, mom, I'm your mini me

[00:34:56] Berta Valle: So, we went to the Oslo Freedom Forum. I took her to New York because it was close and, and, and I want her to see what I'm doing when I'm not with her. And so we were getting ready for the trip, and she saw a suit. A girl suit in the store. And she said, mom, you have to buy me that suit because if I'm going to the Oslo Freedom Forum, I have to look like you.

[00:35:26] Berta Valle: So I'm like, oh my God. And, and it bought her that suit and she looks amazing.

[00:35:35] C. Yulin Cruz: We find Sheros in every community, and I'm sure everyone listening knows one that they can talk about. Well, we want to hear from you. We want you to tell us about those Sheroes that change your community every single day. Maybe they're not on the six o'clock news, but they should be because they do extraordinary things.

[00:35:55] C. Yulin Cruz: So email us at [email protected] with your story. Who knows? Maybe their sheroics will be featured on an upcoming episode.

[00:36:08] C. Yulin Cruz: Sheroics is an Ozy studios production. I'm your host, Yulin Cruz. This episode was produced and engineered by Pamela Lorence and written by Sean Braswell. Make sure to follow Sheroics on Apple Podcasts and subscribe on Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.