"Exile is an attempt on the life project of any person who has had to leave their country in order to save themself. I arrived in Costa Rica on 30th December 2018 after an attack on the human rights organisation I worked for. Going out into the mountains and walking around with this constant tension of having to leave your country to seek refuge in another creates indescribable emotions. Regardless of how you live or where you live, forced displacement and separation from your family or your environment is heartbreaking, and it is very complex to consider making a new life for yourself in a country where you will always be a foreigner. Although my body is outside my country, my heart, my thoughts and my actions are there, so it is impossible for me to disconnect from Nicaragua, even more so in my work as a defender.
Continuing in the struggle is a way to alleviate the permanent pain of exile. In addition, the dreams and rights to live in a country in freedom for which hundreds of lives have been cut short give me the which give me the strength to continue working for the rights of my people and to be a voice that accompanies victims and denounces the abuses of the Nicaraguan government.
I will not give up, for the hope of returning to my country and of being reunited with my family in a place where thoughts and words are not punished, where we can develop fully and have the guarantee of being able to go out on the streets without a gun being pointed at us.
It is a dream, a hope and a right, to return to the country that is ours!"
Gonzalo