(AI translated) Medardo Mairena Sequeira is the founder and coordinator of the Nicaraguan anti-canal peasant movement since 2013 and an active opposition leader who mobilised thousands of peasants in defence of their territories and later joined the social protests that took place from April to September 2018. He was a member of the National Dialogue between protesters and Daniel Ortega's government, mediated by the Catholic Church.

Two months later, he was arrested and prosecuted for terrorism, sentenced to 261 years in prison, and served one year before being released under an amnesty law.

Mairena was one of the opposition's pre-candidates in the November general elections, but he was arrested again on 5 July 2021, released from prison on 9 February 2023, exiled and stripped of his nationality and assets. He currently lives in exile, where he has dedicated himself to strengthening the structure of the Peasant Movement and maintaining international activism by denouncing the human rights situation in Nicaragua, exposing the ‘struggle and resistance’ of the peasants to the international community, and making constant calls for the unification of the different social and political sectors to achieve the democratisation of the country.