The Nicaraguan Ministry of Labor declared this Thursday that next May 30, Nicaraguan Mother’s Day, will be a “mandatory holiday,” for which all workers, both in the state and private sectors, will have the “right to rest and salary.” .
It is the first time in decades that Nicaraguans will be able to be absent from their workday on one of the most celebrated dates in Nicaragua, since Nicaraguan Mother’s Day was proclaimed a national holiday on May 18, in a reform to the Code of Work, approved by the National Assembly (Parliament).
Until now, the Government ordered that May 30 be a national holiday by decree, year after year, but the mandate only applied to the state sector. By custom, private sector workers agreed to close their establishments after noon, to celebrate with their mothers, or they did so once their shifts were over.
However, the Ministry of Labor also issued exceptions.
“Works that are not susceptible to interruption due to their nature or due to the nature of the needs they satisfy and that may affect the economic, social and security activities of the country are excepted,” indicated the labor authorities.
Related note: “May Massacre” will be commemorated with a consumer strike, opponents announce
May 30 as Nicaraguan Mother’s Day appeared among the commemorative dates of the year for the first time in 1940, according to the Academy of Geography and History of Nicaragua. In 1976 there was a modification to establish the celebrations on the last Sunday of the same month. In 1980, the initial date was resumed, which disappeared from the Labor Code in 1990, and reappeared in 2022.
Mothers of April Association rejects national holiday
However, since 2018, May 30 is a controversial date in Nicaragua, since that day at least 15 Nicaraguans died and another 199 were injured, during an armed attack against an anti-government march that is estimated to have brought together more than a million people. persons.
The so-called “mother of all marches” had been organized in support of women who had lost their children in massive protests against President Daniel Ortega in previous days.
The Mothers of April Association (AMA), made up of mourning women, has declared May 30 as “national mourning”, and more than 55 opposition organizations and people who lost their families in the same conditions announced a series of peaceful demonstrations. , such as stoppages of fuel consumption or electrical energy, to prevent the event from falling into oblivion.
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has worsened after the controversial general elections on November 7, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with her main contenders in prison.
