This Monday marks the fifth anniversary of the armed attack on Masaya, during the so-called “cleaning operation”, ordered by the Daniel Ortega regime. The city of flowers would be the one with which the Nicaraguan dictatorship was most merciless
At five in the morning on Tuesday, July 17, 2018, paramilitaries, dressed in blue T-shirts and carrying weapons of war, entered the Monimbó neighborhood aboard Hilux trucks.
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The main entrances that lead to the indigenous neighborhood were attacked, according to the investigation of the retired Nicaraguan Army major, Roberto Samcam, with military weapons AKMS, AK-47, M-24 SWS, Catatumbo rifles, AK-103, M grenade launcher -79, Dragunov rifles, RPG-7 rocket launchers, PKM machine guns and RPK machine guns.
Heavy artillery prevailed against contact bombs, mortar launchers, stones and slingshots with which the self-summoned youths who had to flee for their lives defended themselves.
While the hooded and armed men entered the different sectors of Monimbó, mechanical shovels were dismantling the barricades that the citizens had erected to protect their lives.
Related news: Five years have passed since “Operation Cleaning, the bloodiest day of the protests” carried out by the Ortega regime in 2018
Witnesses and survivors of the attack tell of “the terror” they experienced after the paramilitaries entered house to house to kidnap opponents. “Members of the Citizen Power Council or CPC walked around with a list in hand handing over the kids who had participated in the protests, to later torture them,” narrated a citizen, a resident of the Monimbó neighborhood.
Masaya suffered two “cleaning operations”
For his part, the former and exiled politician Yubrank Suazo said Article 66 that “it is impossible for him not to remember the ringing of the bells of the San Sebastián church, at about 5:30 and six in the morning, where they alerted the Monimbo residents of an attack that was taking place in the northern area of the city of Masaya .
He also recalled that this attack would be the second that the Ortega regime would carry out in Masaya, “the first was on June 19, the day Marcelo Mayorga was assassinated, and that they erected all the barricades that were in the center of the city.” .
“We remember the great courage and gallantry of these Monimbo patriots who raffled to defend the barricades, from the corner of Olinto Valle, and who resented from six in the morning until late at night,” he remarked.
He highlighted that on July 17 the young man was assassinated Eric Lopezoriginally from Monimbó, “being a bloody day for the Masayas who continue to resist to this day.”
Destroyed Magdalena Church
One of the Catholic churches in Masaya that was attacked by paramilitaries was the Santa María Magdalena parish, in Monimbó. The priest Pedro Méndez, who was in charge of the religious temple, was beaten and tortured.
In previous interviews and statements, the priest recounted how he was shot at by the hooded Ortega supporters, who desecrated the church. «They put a weapon in my mouth, they asked where the weapons were; They searched and found nothing,” said the father.
Following this onslaught, Father Méndez has been subjected to threats, sieges, and persecution by high-ranking police officers. In April of this year, Commissioner Juan Valle, along with other officials, surrounded the Catholic church; according to witnesses, with the intention of kidnapping him.
Since the day of the “cleaning operation” in Monimbó, dozens of young people decided to go into exile to save their lives. To date, Masaya is one of the cities in Nicaragua that continues to be besieged by paramilitaries.
