Overview
- At the Palacio de Bellas Artes’ Sala Manuel M. Ponce, Belli accepted the award from Mexico’s culture secretary Claudia Curiel de Icaza and UNAM rector Leonardo Lomelí, with Silvia Lemus and juror Natalia Toledo on stage.
- She said Nicaragua has returned to a dictatorship “equal or worse than Somoza,” urging Mexico to recover a tradition of solidarity grounded in popular will.
- The jury cited her renewal of Hispanoamerican poetry and the power of her dialogue with society, history and literature; members included Natalia Toledo, Rodrigo Martínez Baracs, Ana Clavel, Claudia Piñeiro and Luis García Montero.
- Belli recounted being stripped of nationality, labeled a traitor and having her property confiscated, framing the award as a tribute to those in prison and in exile.
- The prize carries $250,000 and a Vicente Rojo sculpture; Belli is the tenth laureate, the fifth woman, and the second Nicaraguan recipient after Sergio Ramírez in 2014.