[2] There he owns 109 hectares (155 manzanas) of land in Punta Gorda, where he grows corn, quiquisque, and yucca, and became a local leader in the community of Atlanta.

[2] In 2013, he became involved in the peasant anti-canal movement, seeking to repeal Law 840,[1] which granted a 100-year concession to a Chinese businessman to dig an interoceanic canal across the country; the concession expropriated 50 km of land on each side of the proposed route, involving the displacement of tens of thousands of peasants, many indigenous.

We have no weapons, we are a civilian body.”[1] On 13 July 2018, as Mairena and fellow peasant leader Pedro Joaquín Mena Amador prepared to travel outside the country, they were stopped and imprisoned.

[1] Government media reported that searches of the peasants' personal devices had revealed a "giant terrorist and coup plot", but at trial the computer expert could not confirm any incriminating information had been recovered.

[4] Independent media noted that what Mairena had in common with others convicted under the same terms was his prominence as a leader in his sector of Nicaraguan society and as a critic of the ruling government.

[5] The signatories pledged to work toward a unified opposition to mount an electoral challenge to Daniel Ortega, following on years of protest in the country.

[5] The other representatives signing the document were Jesús Tefel, George Henriquez, Carlos Tünnerman, Saturnino Cerrato, Luis Fley, and María Haydee Osuna.