Before the consummation of the assault on the newspaper La Prensa, the newspaper’s Board of Directors reminded the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo that the media outlet “has faced three dictatorships” throughout its 96 years of existence and that “As long as there are Nicaraguans who read it, La Prensa will exist.”
In a releasethe leaders of the oldest newspaper in Nicaragua pointed out that throughout history La Prensa “has suffered closures, imprisonment of directors and journalists, and the assassination of its director, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, on January 10, 1978.”
Also, it has suffered the “bombing and burning of its facilities, siege by fanatical mobs, censorship, customs blockade of the supplies that make its printing possible, and, finally, the occupation and theft of its real estate, its facilities and work equipment. ».
Related news: Regime completes assault on La Prensa and sets up a cultural center in its facilities
In addition, they highlighted that the Ortega-Murillo regime currently keeps three of its executives in prison: Cristiana Chamorro Barrios, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro Barrios and Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro and forced the entire editorial staff of the newspaper to go into exile.
“No dictatorship has shown such viciousness against the values that LA PRENSA represents, as the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo,” stressed the Board of Directors of the media outlet, which describes that “the history of La Prensa is a history of attacks on the values represents”.
The Press Newspaper, converted into a government building
This Tuesday, August 23, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo consummated the assault on La Prensa and inaugurated the José Coronel Urtecho Cultural and Polytechnic Center, in the confiscated facilities, located on the northern highway, in Managua.
Days before the consummation of the robbery of the newspaper, the media had denounced that the Nicaraguan authorities carry out a “de facto confiscation” of their assetsa year after the National Police forcibly occupied its facilities and arrested its general manager, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro.
Faced with this situation, the directors of La Prensa reminded the Ortega-Murillo administration that “the Political Constitution of Nicaragua, in its article 44 “guarantees the right of private property of movable and immovable property and of the instruments and means of production ».
“This article prohibits the confiscation of assets and establishes that officials who violate this provision” will respond with their assets at all times for the damages inflicted, “they pointed out.
In addition, they highlighted that the Nicaraguan regime, by using the name of the poet José Coronel Urtecho, in its new cultural center in the building stolen from La Prensa, “they have hit the stone in the teeth”because the thought of «this great intellectual accuses the current dictators».
«In 1973, when LA PRENSA circulated again after the Managua earthquake, the poet Coronel Urtecho sent a telegram that said: «Congratulations on the reappearance of La Prensa; for the conscience of the country, when La Prensa stops coming out it’s as if nothing happened, or everything was a lie», recalled the Board of Directors.
Related news: Relatives of José Coronel Urtecho reject that the regime uses the poet’s name for “his misdeeds”
On the other hand, the leaders of the newspaper stressed that “they can confiscate our equipment and our facilities, but they cannot against the values that support our work.”
“Once again they want to bury us, and as has happened on other occasions, the ones buried will be them”they highlighted.
Therefore, “our commitment remains firm. We are going to continue doing journalism inspired by the values that have defined 96 years of history», they concluded.
