Dora María Téllez

Dora María Téllez

Dora María Téllez Arguello (born November 21, 1955 in Matagalpa ) is a Nicaraguan politician , historian and former guerrilla fighter of the Sandinistas . She became known through the occupation of the National Palace in the wake of the Nicaraguan Revolution , in which she acted as a negotiator for the FSLN .

Commander in the Nicaraguan Civil War

Dora María Téllez was born in Matagalpa in 1955 as the daughter of María Dora and Ramón Téllez. During her school days, she made contact with the revolutionary student movement and took part in demonstrations against the dictatorship. Since 1974 she was a member of the FSLN. As a medical student, Téllez was in 1976 commander of the FSLN in the civil uprising against the Nicaraguan dictator, Anastasio Somoza Debayle . She went into hiding for her activities. First she fought in the mountains in northern Nicaragua together with Victor Tirado , Daniel Ortega , Germán Pomares , Oscar Benavides and Joaquín Cuadra . The goal was to capture Ocotal , which was not successful due to the great resistance of the Guardia Nacional and the sparse armament of the guerrillas. However, the group took some mountain villages that had a reputation for being particularly attached to the dictator, including Mozonte.

As Comandante Dos, the 22-year-old Téllez was part of the leadership circle of the 26 members of the Tercerist wing of the FSLN, who, under the leadership of Edén Pastora, occupied the National Palace in August 1978 and took about 1,000 members of parliament hostage. Téllez took over the negotiation with the dictator. This followed the demands for the release of political prisoners, including Tomás Borge , the reading out and publication of a declaration by the Terceristas in all national media, the payment of a ransom and the provision of escape planes. Téllez became known to the Nicaraguan population and the world public as Comandante Dos , their code name during the action.

Due to the national and international media success of the campaign, the FSLN subsequently received a large number of visitors and international pressure on the Somoza regime grew. Téllez, who fled to Panama with other guerrillas , received further military training there and in Cuba and returned to Nicaragua in February 1979, where she rejoined the fighting. Her popularity earned her an influential post in the leadership structure of the Tercerist wing of the FSLN, which had since reunited with the other two wings in January 1979.

For the next five months, Téllez led Sandinista troops across the country against Somoza's national guards. You were subordinate to guerrillas and guerrillas of all ages and social origins, from militarily trained combatants to young people and the elderly without any combat experience. She fought first together with the forces of Edén Pastora, who had planned and carried out the occupation of the National Palace as Comandante Cero , and later with other troops in the central and northern regions of Nicaragua. According to the FSLN commander Mónica Baltodano , Téllez's raids, which she led in the northern provinces together with the fighters of commander Leticia Herrera, surprised the enemy so much that they dispersed.

According to the new Sandinista strategy of the urban popular uprising, Dora María Téllez led her forces in a house-to-house war in the city of León , which became the first large city to fall to the Sandinista after six weeks. As a result of this military victory, Téllez was elected Chief of Staff. The conquest of León was followed by the capture of Managua two weeks later. After this final offensive by the Sandinista in June, the dictator fled in July 1979.

Political career

After the Sandinista victory over the Somozas, Téllez was initially political secretary of the FSLN city committee in Managua (1979–1985). 1985–1990 she was Minister of Health of Nicaragua. In this role, she started a health campaign, and the UN awarded Nicaragua a prize for its rapid success .

After Téllez left the FSLN, she and other Sandinista groups founded the Movimiento de Renovación Sandinista (MRS) in 1995 , a party that other Sandinista groups such as Ernesto Cardenal , Henry Ruiz , Mónica Baltodano and Sergio Ramírez have also joined. MRS presidential candidate for the 2006 election, Herty Lewites , died of natural causes before the elections.

On June 4, 2008, Téllez went on hunger strike to protest the "dictatorship of Daniel Ortega ", who is also a Sandinista and was re-elected president in 2006. Ortega and his supporters revoked the legality of the MRS a week later. Téllez ended her hunger strike on June 16 after doctors advised her to do so because of health problems.

Academic positions and a Harvard calling

Dora María Téllez published a book on Nicaraguan history, in which she emphasized the importance of the central-northern region for the political and economic history of the country. In 2004 she was appointed Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor of Latin American Studies at Harvard Divinity School at Harvard University . However, she could not heed this call because she was not allowed to enter the United States because of her terrorist activities .

In response, 122 academics from Harvard University and 15 other North American universities issued a statement in their defense:

“The accusation made by the State Department against Dora María Téllez ... amounts to political persecution of those who have engaged in overthrowing the atrocious dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua ... This regime was almost universally viewed as criminal and inhumane, and yet it was financially and militarily supported by the United States ... In reference to dictatorships, just as the State Department cannot affirm that the activities of Nelson Mandela against the atrocious dictatorship of apartheid in South Africa were terrorist activities, neither can it affirm that Dora María's activities against the atrocious Somoza dictatorship were terrorist. "

- Tim Rogers: Schooled in Revolution.

From 1998 Téllez headed a bibliographic research project for URACCAN (Universidad de las Reciones Autonomas de la Costa Caribe Nicaraguense). She is currently the coordinator of the Memoria Centroamericana project of the Instituto de Historia de Nicaragua y Centroamerica (Ihnca) of the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in cooperation with the Universidad de Costa Rica (URC).

Publications

• En busca de la mujer nueva. In: Nicaragua 1984.
• (with Omar Cabezas and Sergio Ramírez ) La Insurrección de las paredes: pintas y graffiti de Nicaragua , Managua: Editorial Nueva Nicaragua, 1984.
• (with Tomás Borge and posthumously Augusto César Sandino ): Nicaragua: la revolución de la mujer , Editorial Anteo, 1984.
• (with Fabián Medina Sánchez): Muera la gobierna! Colonización en Matagalpa y Jinotega (1820-1890) , Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Nicaragüense (URACCAN), Managua 1999.
• Democracia y seguridad ciudadana: sistema de justicia penal-Nicaragua , Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales, Managua 1999.
• (with Oscar-René Vargas, Roberto J. Cajina, Andrés Serbín and Diego Ferreyra): Gobernabilidad democrática y seguridad ciudadana: El caso de Nicaragua, CRIES, 2000.
• Colonicaión en Matagalpa y Jinotega (1820-1890). In: Boletín nicaraguense de bibliografía y documentación 125 , 2004, pp. 111–156.
• La exclusión política, de jóvenes, mujeres y pueblos indígenas: Propuestas para la Reforma política en Nicaragua-Documento de Trabajo. (PDF; 1.3 MB) FES: Printex, 2009.
• Le gouvernement a polarisé le pays et la crise économique rend un dialogue national urgent. In: Amérique centrale, fragilité des démocraties 73, summer 2009, pp. 101–112.

Web links

• Dora María Téllez's blog (Spanish).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biografias de Mujeres Nicaraguenses, Dora María Téllez. "Con la Victoria en la Mirada" ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , March 7, 2007. Retrieved June 9, 2012. 
2. ↑ Margaret Randall: Las Hijas de Sandino. Una historia abierta. Managua, Nicaragua: Anamá Ediciones Centroamericanas, 1999, p. 317.
3. ^ Pilar Arias: Nicaragua. Revolución. Relatos de combatientes del Frente Sandinista. Mexico: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1980, pp. 136-139.
4. ^ Sergio Ramírez : Adiós muchachos. Una memoria de la revolución sandinista. Madrid, Aguilar, 1999, p. 97.
5. ↑ Margaret Randall: Las Hijas de Sandino. Una historia abierta. Managua, Nicaragua: Anamá Ediciones Centroamericanas, 1999, p. 325.
6. ↑ Biografias de Mujeres Nicaraguenses, Dora María Téllez. "Con la Victoria en la Mirada" ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , March 7, 2007. Retrieved June 9, 2012. 
7. ↑ Margaret Randall: Las Hijas de Sandino. Una historia abierta. Managua, Nicaragua: Anamá Ediciones Centroamericanas, 1999, p. 327. Antonio Caño: Dora María Téllez. The ministra de Salud de Nicaragua is a producto típico de la revolución sandinista. In: El País of December 9, 1985.
8. ^ Dora María Téllez en huelga de hambre por mantener personalidad jurídica MRS. Radio la Primerisima, June 4th 2008.
9. ↑ Duncan Campbell: US bars Nicaragua heroine as 'terrorist'. In: Guardian Unlimited, March 4, 2005.
10. ^ William L. Jusino: Would-Be Prof Denied Entry Visa. in: The Harvard Crimson, March 10, 2005.
11. ↑ Fernando Saavedra Cortez: URACCAN Board of Directors Meet. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
12. ↑ Ihnca. Memoria Centroamericana. Project presentation. (Spanish). Retrieved August 21, 2013.