Citizens of Santa María de Pantasma, municipality of Jinotega, point out that they can no longer bear the heavy taxes and charges for services of the “citizen power mayor’s office” led by the Ortega supporters Carmen Medina and her vice mayor Melvin Zelaya.
Without having made public a consultation with the councilors and without taking into account the economic crisis that the citizens of the municipality are going through, the mayoress increased the payments for permits and services of the commune, said several complainants. The voracity is such that the Ortega merchants themselves are dissatisfied with the new rates.
A birth certificate, for example, which used to cost 60 córdobas, is now worth 120, that is, double. The registration of a letter of sale that had a cost of 60 córdobas, is now worth twice as much. «All species rose twice as much. It is not known, based on the fact that the compañeros decide this increase, if things do not go well here, “explained a businessman who is a member of the Sandinista Front, for which he asked to use his comments under anonymity.
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Others affected are the producers who reported that agro-services also increased. “For an agroservicio I used to pay a thousand córdobas a month, now it has risen to two thousand one hundred córdobas,” a farmer complained.
With the increases, the merchants are the most affected: tuition costs, land rights and leasing of sections, also rose from 20, 30 and up to 50 percent.
«Feast» with fuels
According to the citizens, another non-transparent “business” in the commune is with fuel. During the governments prior to Ortega’s regime, there was a tight control so that they could not easily acquire fuel for work machinery. There were even cases where the Mayor’s Office even got into debt with the local gas station to be able to respond to the population’s demands for road repairs.
However, now that the commune is administered by Carmen Medina, the fuel is purchased from outside the town. No one knows who provides it, its costs and quantities. A van that is unknown if it is private, state or commune, is the one that is in charge of hauling drums of diesel and gasoline. The commercial details of the acquisition and distribution of this fuel is handled by few in the mayor’s office of this city.
Some members of the red and black party have quietly expressed their discontent. They see with repudiation how “comrade Medina” makes use of the people’s assets in complicity with a small group of unconditional supporters, but they do not dare to question it publicly, for fear of reprisals.
They modify budget without popular consultation
The mayor’s office of Santa María de Pantasma was assaulted by Ortega on July 2, 2022, ousting the legitimate authorities who had been elected by popular vote in the recent simulation elections that took place this past November.
Since then, no one knows what has happened to the budget, since at the end of the year, the 2023 budget should have been approved, but to date, neither Sandinista councilors nor the liberal allies have been aware of the finances with which the municipality operates. No one reports, for example, what happened to the money approved for road repair projects, in which there were thousands contributed by community members.
Community members from Aguas Calientes, San Vicente, El Chamarro and Bocas de Vilan, at the time, confirmed that they had contributed money to repair the road, but said work was never carried out and the money vanished.
Militants claim
Other claims in the commune are made by the red and black militants of the municipality and neighboring towns. They assure that the building authorities have brought personnel from other municipalities and those who “defended the takeover” of the mayor’s office are still waiting for the jobs they were offered.
“Here there are a lot of historical militants, defenders of the commander and the compañera and we continue to hope that they agree that we are contributing to recovering the Mayor’s Office,” said an Ortega member, admitting the illegality with which they acted.
Currently, repair work is being carried out on the municipal market. Many red-and-black supporters thought that they would be employed in that work, but they stayed “dressed and upset”, since the mayoress only hired personnel from the city of Jinotega. “This should not have been so, the mayor’s office must work for its people, not for that of another municipality,” they claimed.
The militants add that to date, the Santa Maria de Pantasma mayor’s office has not convened any council to inform or listen to the population. “We are waiting for that call, the compañera is going to have to listen to the annoyance of the real Sandinistas, not the coup plotters,” said a woman who claims to be a member of the Sandinista Front, for as long as she has any conscience.
By United Voices
