The journalist and director of Radio Darío, Aníbal Toruño, sent a message of resistance to the Nicaraguan people and the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, within the framework of the commemoration of the sixth anniversary of the destruction attack against the station, which was perpetrated by the repressive Sandinista forces.
Through a video published on YouTube, the journalist thanked the Lord “for allowing us to continue the legacy of my father, Juan Toruño Calderón,” and also the audience “that allows us to reach more than 10 million people through of the streaming, the new TV, the new radio.
Related news: Aníbal Toruño: Five years after the burning of Radio Darío “censorship continues to be defeated”
“Today (April 20, 2024) after 75 years we are still on the air, despite the fact that the dictatorships of yesterday and today tried to silence us,” said Toruño. «The destruction, the cancellation of our licenses, the exile and the theft of our facilities were not capable of defeating the bases and foundations of our principles. “Here we are,” he added.
“They will end up turned into dust”
Likewise, the journalist took the opportunity to send a warning to the dictators Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, whom he described as an “unbalanced couple who are crushing our nation.”
Toruño told the Ortega regime that “fear and trepidation force them, in their cowardice, to imprison our priests and bishops, to turn churches into prisons in their fierce religious persecution unprecedented in our history.”
«They tried to end the free press, they imposed exile and banishment on us. “They tried to take away our nationality and, with their long arm, impose silence and self-censorship through threats and paralyzing fear,” declared the director of Radio Darío.
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Despite the repressive measures unleashed by the Ortega regime against the media and its correspondents, Toruño affirmed that the ruling couple “failed in the attempt to silence the voices of freedom of those of us who continue to defeat censorship and inform the world of its infinite cruelties and “their crimes are crimes against humanity.”
The journalist warned Ortega that he would end up with the same fate as “Caligula, Saddam Hussein, (Benito) Mussolini or Fidel Castro, who condemned an entire people to poverty and misery. Their end was the same: turned into dust and reached by earthly justice as well as divine justice.
«We are one of the most prestigious and wide-reaching media on social networks and readers of our website. We keep growing. To you, Nicaraguan people, thank you very much for allowing us to be part of your day at home, at the university, in the car and on the street, imagination is the limit, thank you very much. We are all April and may God bless Nicaragua,” was Toruño’s farewell message.
Siege of Radio Darío
Radio Darío was founded in 1949 by Toruño Calderón and is considered a pioneer of radio stations in the country. During his career, he has suffered attacks, closures, destruction, “my father’s jail and exile, and now mine,” said the communicator.
On April 20, 2018, the station was burned to the ground. The attack occurred during social protests against the Nicaraguan regime. “They are burning Radio Darío, please share this video!” Cried a journalist from the station in the university city, the night of the incident, as he approached the burning facilities, accompanied by screams and sobs.
Although the attacks, siege and intimidation against the workers, journalists and its director, Aníbal Toruño, continued, the media continued reporting, until the Ortega dictatorship closed it, in August 2022, after 73 years of existence.
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Added to the attacks against the radio station was the stripping of Toruño’s nationality, as well as the blocking of his bank accounts and the confiscation of his and his children’s assets.
In an interview with Article 66, conducted last year, Toruño expressed that “we must understand that the radio that was known no longer exists and now we must adapt to the new times, but the most important thing is that we have overcome censorship and the bad times and the desires (of the Ortega dictatorship) of wanting to turn off the microphone that was founded 73 years ago.
