Nicaragua’s upheaval has claimed hundreds of lives and changed everything for Valeska Valle, Lesther Alemán and Douglas Costa

The Nicaraguan students who became reluctant rebels: 'I'm no longer the same'

Three months ago, Valeska Valle was a church-going dance freak whose best friend was her dog.

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Douglas Costa plotted to take a master’s at the University of Oxford.

And Lesther Alemán was a communications student who harboured not-so-secret dreams of donning his country’s blue-and-white presidential sash.

Then came the outbreak of what some call the Nicaraguan spring on 18 April – and everything changed.

“I’m no longer the same Valeska I was on 17 April,” said Valle, during an interview at the Managua hideout to which she and her fellow student protest leaders have retreated since their uprising against Daniel Ortega began almost 12 weeks ago.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Valeska Valle, 22. Photograph: Tom Phillips/The Guardian

The upheaval – which has so far claimed more than 300 lives and looks set to intensify this week with three-days of protests and a nationwide strike – has transformed Valle, Costa and Alemán into reluctant renegades and, in doing so, turned their lives upside down.

Valle, who is 22, said relatives had shunned her since she announced she was popping out to buy Coca-Cola on 18 April but instead slipped off to take a front-line role in the struggle against the man she calls “el Tirano”.

“Most of my siblings have turned their backs on me,” said Valle, a final year accounting student who was born and raised in Masaya, a one-time Sandinista stronghold that has become one of the key focuses of resistance. “Of my seven brothers and sisters, five told me it would be better if I said I was an only child. Most of us here have been rejected by our families.”

Costa, a 30-year-old economics lecturer, said before the insurrection he had received a conditional offer to study at the Latin American Centre of St Antony’s College, Oxford. But he had scrapped those plans to concentrate on overthrowing Nicaragua’s leader. “Oxford will have to wait,” Costa said, with a grin. “I’m learning more here.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Douglas Costa, 30. Photograph: Tom Phillips/The Guardian

But perhaps no one’s world has changed more than that of Alemán, a fourth-year student at Managua’s Universidad Centroamericana, whose mesmerizing televised attack on Ortega during a national dialogue on 16 May made him an overnight celebrity.

“Surrender!” the 20-year-old student instructed the 72-year-old Sandinista, in scenes that were broadcast across the country and around the world. “We cannot hold talks with a murderer because what has taken place in this country is a genocide!”

Alemán, who has since been lionized with musical tributes and inundated with Facebook fans, recalled feeling a mix of nervousness and fury as he harangued the one-time revolutionary hero. “If they had known what I was going to say, they’d have ambushed the car [before],” he said, only half-joking.

Alemán admitted he had once dreamed of becoming Nicaragua’s president but said he felt uneasy with the stardom his verbal assault had brought. “I always wanted to be on the other side of the camera. I never wanted to be a protagonist,” Alemán insisted as he posed for photos outside the safe-house where he has lived since the revolt began. “The cameras intimidate me more than Daniel Ortega.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lesther Alemán, 20. Photograph: Tom Phillips/The Guardian

As well as coming to terms with their new-found renown, Nicaragua’s student rebels have had to fight off claims they are the puppets of US-backed “coup-mongers”.

Those efforts were undermined last month when several of their number flew to Washington, reportedly to enlist Donald Trump in their anti-Ortega crusade, and were photographed with senior Republicans including Marco Rubio. The trip was reportedly bankrolled by Freedom House, a US-backed nonprofit which supports human rights and democracy advocates around the world.

“We’ve painted ourselves with a terrible brush. We’ll have to correct our mistakes,” student leader Harley Morales subsequently admitted, adding: “We’re not for sale!”

Observers blame most of the recent bloodshed on security forces or government-linked paramilitary gangs. But the students have also been forced to rebut accusations from Ortega and his allies that they are the ones driving the current wave of violence.

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“It is a totally peaceful struggle,” Valle said. “Non-violence is our most powerful weapon.”

Costa said the decision to shun violence was not simply about being “good people”: “It’s a political calculation. We know that if we respond to the government’s violence with violence, our whole agenda will fall away. Rationally, we know violence would hurt us more than it would help us.”

Beyond the obvious physical dangers, Valle admitted life as a student revolutionary was a grind: “We’ve got no money … at the start we didn’t even have food. We spent a week with nothing but cookies and water.”

“And wearing natural Ray-Bans,” quipped Costa, pointing to the dark bags under his sleep-deprived eyes.

Valle’s mother was at least beginning to accept her daughter’s new life as an undergraduate insurgent though – even if she was still nervous about the risks.

“It’s natural,” Valle said. “She’s afraid I might get killed.”

Additional reporting by Juan Diego Briceño