Medardo Mairena

Medardo Mairena Sequeira (born c. 1977) is a Nicaraguan farmer and coordinator of the peasant (campesino) movement. Mairena has worked in the peasant anti-canal movement since 2013 and has been an active opposition leader since the national protests broke out in late April 2018, participating in the National Dialogue between protestors and the government of Daniel Ortega, mediated by the Catholic Church. Two months later he became one of a large number of dissidents arrested and prosecuted for terrorism; Mairena was sentenced to 261 years in prison, serving one year before he was released under a negotiated Amnesty Law.

In 2021 Mairena was one of the opposition pre-candidates seeking to challenge Ortega who is running for a fifth term in the November general election. On 5 July 2021, Mairena was arrested again, the sixth opposition pre-candidate and one of two dozen opposition figures jailed since the beginning of June 2021.

Early life Mairena is originally from Nueva Guinea, Nicaragua, where he attended school through the sixth grade. He comes from a family of liberals and joined the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) when he was elected to the Regional Council of the South Caribbean (Bluefields). Independent media noted that what Mairena had in common with others convicted under the same terms was his prominence as a leader in his sector of Nicaraguan society and as a critic of the ruling government. The signatories pledged to work toward a unified opposition to mount an electoral challenge to Daniel Ortega, following on years of protest in the country. He is the sixth pre-candidate to be detained and one of roughly two dozen of opposition and civic leaders detained by the Ortega government since the beginning of June 2021. Two other peasant leaders, Mena and Freddy Alberto Navas López, and two student leaders, Lesther Lenin Alemán Alfaro and Max Isaac Jerez Meza, were also arrested that night. They are accused of violations of Law 1055, "performing acts that undermine independence, sovereignty, and self-determination". All detained have been sentenced to 90 days of preventative detention. Others question the constitutionality of Law 1055; human rights lawyer and Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights president Vilma Núñez has said it is overbroad and poorly defined to the extent that it becomes a "generalized criminalization of everything that involves criticism or an opposing position."

Personal life Mairena is married to Eyder García. He has three children.