Edwin Tellez Guevara, the “Vandalic Boxer”
Edwin Jose Tellez Guevara started boxing from a very young age. He was barely studying in high school when he took his first punches.
On October 22, 2011, in the Rosendo Alvarez gymnasium in Ciudad Sandino, 15-year-old Tellez faced Luis Solorzano, to establish himself as a professional boxer and get his first victory. Almost a decade later, Tellez has more than three years of fighting in different parts of Europe, mainly Spain, from where he doesn’t hesitate to wave the Nicaraguan flag.
Recently, a photo of him circulated on different web pages and social network profiles, after his 59th fight, held on October 19, 2019, in Los Cristianos, Spain. There Tellez, despite being defeated in the ring by the Spaniard Christian Rodriguez, won a victory with his compatriots, who quickly dubbed him “the vandalic boxer.”
[Vandals are one of the many derogatory words that Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega and his VP/wife Rosario Murillo call anybody who expresses opposition to their rule.]
Proud to be “the vandalic boxer”
Tellez Guevara lives and fights in Spain since 2015. But he travels to Nicaragua when he has no fights. When he returned to the country, after the April protests in 2018, he noticed that the crisis and insecurity did not allow him to stay in Nicaragua permanently. Therefore, he returned to Spain to continue fighting, but also to reveal, wherever he would be, what is happening in Nicaragua.
When he learned that in social networks he was nicknamed the “vandal boxer,” he says that he felt proud. “I didn’t think or imagine getting that nickname. But I’m proud to be able to represent my country in that way and thus be able to express our right to expression,” commented the boxer. He assures that whenever he has the opportunity, he takes advantage of it to show what is happening in Nicaragua and the sociopolitical crisis the country is undergoing at the hands of the Ortega-Murillo regime.
He will continue waving the flag
This young athlete affirms that this is not the first time he has worn the Nicaraguan flag with the shield inverted as a sign of protest. For him, it is very important that he continue talking about what is happening in the country and that everyone knows that justice has not yet been achieved.
“I took this picture because I wanted to express everything that the country is experiencing. I feel happy because I have seen both good and bad comments, but I identify myself with the blue and white people, who have given me their support without knowing me,” concludes Tellez.
