Father Edwing Román, who was pastor of the San Miguel Arcángel church in Masaya, recalled the attack on July 9, 2018 by Ortega mobs against religious leaders, human rights defenders and opponents who were in the Minor Basilica of San Sebastián , in Diriamba, Carazo.
“July 9, 2018, citizens of Diriamba threatened, Bishops, journalists, human rights defenders, priests, we were brutally attacked by mobs incited by paramilitaries protected by the Sandinista police,” the priest recalled through his Twitter account.
Related news: Hate, offenses and blows, this is how the attacked priests remember the attack they suffered two years ago by Ortega mobs
He also pointed out how the Ortega dictatorship ordered his militancy to desecrate the “temples of San Sebastián in Diriamba and Santiago in Jinotepe.
In reference to the current persecution unleashed by the Ortega regime against journalists and opponents, Román wrote a biblical text on his own social network, urging that «Do not be afraid of them. Mt.10,26».
He added that “taking precaution is not being afraid of persecutors; never be afraid to tell the truth. Let us rather be afraid of denying God, of hiding or denying the truth, of killing freedom and that by our silence we become accomplices».
One day after the massacre perpetrated by paramilitaries and the Police in the department of Carazo, the bishops arrived in Diriamba to help citizens who were taking refuge in the religious temple to leave, however, the fanatics and government workers strongly attacked the Catholic leaders.
Related news: “Paramilitaries kneeled protesters in Jinotepe and shot them mercilessly,” opponents recall
The former priest of the San Miguel de Masaya church would have said two years ago that “he had never seen hatred so closely, there were white and firearms, blows, offenses, recognized paramilitary fanatics, who incited the portable mob.”
Human rights organizations documented that, in that year, a contingent of at least two thousand armed men broke into the municipalities of Jinotepe, Diriamba and Dolores in the early hours of July 8, cut off the telephone signal and took over the hospitals to end the life of the inhabitants who were in the trenches and remained in resistance against the dictatorship.
Rosario Murillo celebrates massacre
On July 8, the spokeswoman, Rosario Murillo, stated that it was a “deserved defeat”, while her regime celebrated with an act outside the Colegio San José in Jinotepe.
For his part, former political prisoner Luis Lesage told Article 66 that July 8 and 9, 2018 was “chilling, because the crimes against humanity of the Ortega and Murillo government are remembered.
“We received this July 8 with a lot of pain, the anguish was terrible to see our brothers injured. However, we are hopeful that Nicaragua will be free and that we will have the freedom we yearn for,” said the rapper, also exiled in the United States.
The so-called “Operation Cleanup” ended 38 lives, whose crimes remain unpunished and rather the Nicaraguan regime has said to celebrate what it has called “the defeat of the coup.”
