Bianca Jagger joined Spanish director and journalist Daniel Rodríguez Moya for a sit-down interview with France24 on Monday. The filmmaker’s latest, “Nicaragua, Patria Libre Para Vivir,” premieres tonight in Paris. Jagger gave it a brilliant review and took the opportunity to unleash a few thoughts.
The former actress and human rights advocate made full use of her speaking slots throughout the nine-minute appearance, touching on everything from “colonists’” massacre of Indigenous communities to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s history as a Sandinista revolution leader and underreported updates from home.
“It’s worse,” Jagger said of the state of things at home after the protest movement took off in 2018. The 74-year-old fashion icon is keenly aware of the impact that year had around the world, yet she’s disappointed by a steady decrease in coverage since.
“Since Evo Morales was ousted in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega realizes that that can happen in Nicaragua, so the repression has incremented,” she said.
Jagger has been vocal about her opinion on Ortega every chance she gets, joining protests, denouncing him on stage and using her platform to draw attention to the plight of her people.
The film’s purpose, according to Rodríguez, is to show how the peaceful protest movement grew, highlight its leaders and also show how Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s administration violated human rights. Jagger calls it a “critical” watch and boasts about its accuracy in capturing the country’s political climate.
“At this moment, when repression has increased in Nicaragua,” Jagger said. “It’s really important for people to be able to understand what’s happening… and for those who still believe and still look at Daniel Ortega [as] the leader that some of us supported in 1979 in the Sandinista revolution, to realize that he is a traitor – that he’s a murderous dictator and that people are being killed in Nicaragua as we speak.”