Bringing books to people who didn’t have access to them because of the economic situation in Nicaragua became the life mission of journalist Fabiola Tercero. It all began in 2017 when, recovering from surgery, she raffled off her own books through social media platforms like Facebook.
When her books ran out, Tercero asked for donations and saw book exchanges as another way to encourage reading. “Knowledge must circulate,” she told Literal magazine in 2021 when she was resuming her project after overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic.
The project grew until it formally became “El Rincón de Fabi” (Fabi’s Corner), a cultural space for exchanging books and promoting reading. According to Tercero’s own accounts, by 2023, she had given away more than 1,000 books and that year she carried out at least 10 exchange activities.
In addition to promoting reading, Tercero always defined herself as a feminist journalist, who advocated for gender equality and sexual diversity, Víctor Manuel Herrera, director of the organization Independent Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua (PCIN, for its initials in Spanish), told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR).
(Photo: Courtesy PCIN)
She worked for the newspaper Hoy and for 100% Noticias, where she was a presenter. When she began to notice how journalism was becoming an enemy for the Daniel Ortega regime, she decided to lower her profile, especially since she could not leave Nicaragua due to her mother's health, Herrera said.
In fact, 100% Noticias was one of the media outlets directly in Ortega’s sights. In December 2018, its directors and founders, Lucía Pineda and Miguel Mora, were imprisoned on charges of “fomenting and inciting hatred and violence,” among other things. They were released on June 11, 2019 after spending six months in prison, while the headquarters of the channel was raided on Dec. 21, 2018 and later converted into a rehabilitation center.
Promoting reading and advocating for issues such as feminism and gender equality was how Tercero was spending her days when on July 12, 2024, the National Police raided her home in events that are still unclear and after which Tercero disappeared.
Seven months after her “forced disappearance,” as organizations such as PCIN have described it, her colleagues continue to call for information about her whereabouts and health status.
“We are doing everything possible to ensure that Fabiola’s case continues to be talked about. We know that anything we say can represent a difficulty [for Tercero],” Herrera said. “We know that she is a strong person and she has told us on several occasions: ‘If one day they put me in jail, keep in mind that you should never keep quiet for me. Keep fighting and keep insisting that this changes.’ Because of that conviction, we continue to speak out for Fabiola.”
Since her disappearance, the Central American Network of Journalists (RPC) has also followed the case and insists on the need to pressure Nicaragua to provide information on Tercero's status.
“In the case of Fabiola Tercero, unfortunately, we still have a status of disappearance without having confirmation of an arrest from the Nicaraguan State, which is something that we cannot rule out and which is a rather critical point because we are talking about a woman journalist who fought for the issue of gender perspectives, feminism and the rights of Nicaraguan women,” Angélica Cárcamo, director of the RPC, told LJR.
Cárcamo said that the international community's pressure on Nicaragua must be stronger in order to obtain information at the very least.
"Nicaragua continues to create a regime that has advanced rapidly, which continues to be warped because the international community has not acted with sufficient rigidity to be able to create minimal impact and at least get access to information about what is happening," she said.
Perhaps one of the questions that comes up most often is why a woman journalist dedicated to promoting literature could represent a threat to the Ortega administration.
“I think what is happening is an attack on critical consciousness,” Cárcamo said. “The regime wants to minimize any expression of citizens who could potentially organize themselves.”
Cárcamo sees reading as a way to create that critical consciousness that the Ortega-Murillo administration fears.
It’s an analysis that Fabiola León, a researcher for Latin America at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), agrees with. “El Rincón de Fabi was a commitment to reading and under the regime that becomes a crime,” she told LJR.
In addition to their concern for Tercero, the organizations also demand the release of two other colleagues, Leo Cárcamo and Elsbeth D’Anda, who were arrested at the end of 2024 on charges that remain unclear.
Leo Cárcamo was arrested on Nov. 23 when police patrols broke into his home without presenting a court order, according to the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression (RELE) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Cárcamo previously was arrested in 2019 for his work at a local radio station, but he was in retirement at the time of his recent arrest.
According to organizations such as PCIN and RCP, the biggest concern with Cárcamo is due to his chronic illnesses.
“We have received information that at some times he has had health crises that could put his physical integrity at risk,” Angélica Cárcamo, of the RCP, said.
On Jan. 6, 2025, the Inter-American Court ordered the State of Nicaragua to immediately release Cárcamo.
The arrest of Elsbeth D'Anda took place on Oct. 27 after the communicator spoke on his program on Channel 23 about the increase in price of basic goods. At least 20 agents arrived at his home without a court order, confiscated electronic equipment and transferred him to “El Chipote,” Judicial Assistance Directorate, the RELE reported.
Although it is known that Cárcamo and D’Anda are in State custody, it’s unknown how healthy they are, as well as the charges against them. According to Herrera from PCIN, with the modification of the Organic Law of the Judiciary, authorities have up to three months to file a criminal case against a person.
“We assume that these people are going to be prosecuted by the Cybercrime Law, law 1055, or possibly they are going to be banished with law 1049,” Herrera said. “These are the laws that they are using for all the people who oppose the dictatorship and basically one is to prosecute him and another is to take away their nationality and banish them.”
In more recent events, on Feb. 10, the arrest of Irving Guerrero, a journalist who directed a program on Radio La Cariñosa, was announced. Although police detained him on charges of alleged illegal possession of weapons, the organization Alertas Libertad de Prensa Nicaragua said it was retaliation for his journalistic work, as reported by 100% Noticias.
