In León, its inhabitants are convinced that the Daniel Ortega regime has aimed to spread its political ideology and “give a hand to the money” that students from the Autonomous Christian University of Nicaragua (UCAN) pay for tuition fees and monthly fees.
As they know that there is little they can do to change the fortunes of their university, they wonder if the fees will go down now that it is state-owned.
The dictatorship “has seized the buildings, furniture, bank accounts and other properties of the UCAN, of the la la Pan American University of Nicaragua (UPAN) and the Pacific university (UNIP or UNP for its acronym in English)”, warned a source from the universities that were stripped of their legal status.
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The source explained that in view of these measures, the universities, as in the case of UCAN, the rectory tried by all possible means through its lawyers to stop the confiscation by means of an appeal for protection and other legal strategies, but they were stopped. last week, when they received a threat: “there will be jail and exile for those who refuse to hand over the university.”
That same day, the buildings of the renowned university were seized by the Police and the National Council of Universities (CNU). “They have control of the operation of the facilities in the territory, even their social networks. This week they said that now the UCAN will be called Gaspar García Laviana, it is not known what will happen to the staff and to the future of the university community,” said an academic.
“Disgrace to Gaspar García Laviana”
Gaspar García Laviana, was a priest of Spanish origin who arrived in Nicaragua in 1969 as a missionary of the Sacred Heart of Spain. He was located in the parish of Tola, department of Rivas.
The religious is considered a face of that guerrilla struggle that sought political, social and economic change in the Central American country during the Somocista dictatorship. He left the cassock and joined the armed struggle, but like many, they gave their lives in vain, under the acronym of a party that is now another dictatorship in Nicaragua.
The Spanish priest was assassinated on December 11, 1978. He was 37 years old. “That a university stolen by another dictatorship bears his name is a dishonor for the religious guerrilla, an offense against his memory,” said an Ortega militant from León, dissatisfied with the actions of his party.
adrift university students
The students of the university that now bears the name of the guerrilla priest, assured that they felt adrift, because in the corridors of the León campus, and in their departmental headquarters, the situation of their study center is still not clear.
«Some say that they closed the university and confiscated it, but most of us had already paid for the class term, others for the modules and the right to promotion. others have left, it is a disaster. What is going to happen to our money and career?” said Jesús, a Systems Engineering student, annoyed.
“Everything is said here. Perhaps they do not understand that they literally stole the university, they should make their claims to Ortega and the CNU, which is thanks to them that we are now in trouble,” he said. Joseph Aguilarin response to the demands that his colleagues make to the rectory about the destination of the money they paid for their studies.
Manuel Sequeira, approached the León medical school concerned about the academic situation of his daughter, who is in her third year of Pharmacy. «This year, my daughter began to give her professional practices in a clinic, I already paid for the term of class, and I still don’t know what will happen to her career. They only say that we are not worried that everything is in the hands of the CNU,” denounced Sequeira.
Critics of the regime in the university city called on all students to “be more alert, and open their minds so that they do not allow themselves to be fooled” by the dictatorship. “It is confiscation, theft and none of them (the regime) cares that we are the young people who are being affected,” said another student.
It was learned that the new administrators sent by the regime to the confiscated university will continue to collect university fees from the students of the extinct UCAN. “Then why did they confiscate it?” asked other university students.
By United Voices
