X-Post: Nicaraguan writer says government is censoring him

Associated Press – December 7, 2008 2:43 PM ET

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramirez says his government is censoring him by blocking publication of his prologue to the work of an earlier Nicaraguan poet.

Spanish newspaper El Pais had asked Ramirez to write the introduction to a book of poems by Carlos Martinez Rivas. But Nicaragua’s government cultural institute owns the rights to Martinez’s works and El Pais says it refused to let them be published with a prologue by Ramirez — a former ally turned sharp critic of President Daniel Ortega.

The Managua newspaper Nuevo Diario said Sunday that Ramirez called the ban “an absurd reprisal for my criticism against injustice and in defense of democracy in Nicaragua.”

El Pais says it won’t publish the book without Ramirez’s introduction.

Big ups to Author Scoop for the link to the story.

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