The National Baseball Stadium of Nicaragua, inaugurated in 2017 under the name of “Dennis Martínez”in honor of the best baseball player of Nicaraguan origin, will now be called “Sovereignty,” the country’s vice president, Rosario Murillo, reported on Tuesday.
Martínez, 67, is one of the most admired athletes in Nicaragua, due to his successes in the MLB, such as being the first Latin American baseball player to throw a perfect game, and holding the record for the Latino with the most victories in the league for 20 years. best league in the world, with 245 until 2018
“The National Stadium will be called the National Sovereignty Stadium, starting this Friday, December 16,” Murillo, who is the wife of the country’s president, Daniel Ortega, announced through official media.
Sovereignty “is a name that brings us all together, a word that brings us all together, a symbol of what we all are,” he added.
The original name of the stadium, considered one of the best in Latin America by the Pan American Baseball Confederation (Copabe), was withdrawn on November 23, without explanation from the administration.
The name of Dennis Martínez, the first Latino to throw a perfect game in the Major Leagues, was removed from his social networks, and from the stadium, located in the center of Managua.
Martínez, former holder of the record for Latin American pitcher with the most victories in the MLB, disassociated himself from the National Baseball Stadium in 2018, in the midst of the sociopolitical crisis that Nicaragua is going through, amid accusations that the building was allegedly used by the Ortega government. as a center of operations for armed attacks against anti-government demonstrations.
The Nicaraguan first lady specified that the new name of the National Stadium “will be installed this Friday at five in the afternoon,” local time.
“We are all invited, we are all summoned to participate in this moment of dignity and national decorum, of honor, glory and victory of the Nicaraguan people,” he added.
Murillo did not say if Ortega will participate in the act of changing the name of the sports complex.
The word sovereignty summarizes one of the main claims of the Government of Nicaragua in the face of the demand from a part of the international community and humanitarian organizations that it respect the human rights of Nicaraguans.
The change of name of the stadium is also a demand from the Sandinistas, who consider Martínez a “seller of the country” because he does not support Ortega’s decisions and because he criticizes his style of government.
At the time of its inauguration, the “Dennis Martínez”, built under the parameters and supervision of the MLB at a cost of 36 million dollars, with capacity for 15,000 spectators, was the jewel in the crown of the XI Central American Games in Managua in 2017.
