You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is a reluctant exile, currently living in the United States, but preoccupied with

events in his homeland, Nicaragua. Felix Maradiaga, a former government official and a prominent

figure in civil society, fled for his life in the summer after a series of threats issued by

the Sandinista government and a violent assault by

unknown assailants. Government officials claimed he was the mastermind behind what they described

as a criminal and terrorist plot to launch a coup d'etat last April. In fact, the eruption of

street protests was prompted by public fury overcuts in pensions and welfare benefits.

But Mr. Maradiaga, a prominent critic of President Daniel Ortega, has since been charged with a host of serious crimes.

He, in turn, is using his presence here in America to appeal for international pressure to be

applied on the Sandinista government to force early elections and end the repression. In many ways,

there are parallels with the political and economic crisis in socialist Venezuela. Is there any

greater chance of positive change in Nicaragua? Well, Felix

Mardiaga joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. It is now seven months since popular protest erupted

in Nicaragua and for a time it seemed there was a real chance of change coming to your country.

Do you feel that that window of opportunity has now closed?

I think that the window of opportunity for a quick fix has ended.

I think that the situation is more complicated.

On the other hand, the average Nicaraguan is still interested in transition towards democracy.

So I think that we have not only a chance, but a firm commitment to move towards democracy.

Would you accept that perhaps you and others in the opposition, if we can loosely call it the opposition, you overestimated

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