“Today is not a day of victory for anyone in Nicaragua. Today is one more day of the painful path of tears and death that our country has lived and that has left so many innocent victims, whom we cannot and do not want to forget ”, said this Sunday, on the day of November 7, the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Monsignor Silvio José Báez, exiled since 2019 due to the persecution and threats of fans of the Daniel Ortega regime.
Báez officiated mass in Washington, where he referred to the Central American country and the situation experienced by its citizens, both those in the nation and those who chose to go into exile. “The whole world has its eyes on our country because of the illegitimate event that is taking place there today,” he said.
The auxiliary bishop affirmed that it is impossible not to think about Nicaragua, where presidential votes are being held this Sunday in a generalized context of repression, under the command of the Ortega regime and his wife, vice president and spokesperson, Rosario Murillo. The religious advocated not to turn the page, “ignoring the truth and mocking justice.”
He recalled the people killed by the repression, the exiles who have been forced to leave the country and “those who have been unjustly locked up in jail and are treated cruelly simply for wanting a better country” in reference to the 150 political prisoners who there are in Nicaragua, among them the last 39 imprisoned since last May, including seven presidential hopefuls, civic, political and business leaders.
The Catholic Church is also under harassment from the Executive, while the opposition has as one of its main challenges to reorganize in exile, while in the interior its territorial leaders are under siege. In his appearances this year, Ortega has accused the bishops of “coup plotters”, of being “priests of the devil”, and sent the Police to intimidate them as happened with the priest, Vicente Martínez de Santa Lucía in Ciudad Darío, Matagalpa.
Martínez said last October that he received an official “courtesy visit” with the supposed intention of letting him know what the electoral law said, after he publicly questioned the electoral process, described as irregular by different sectors of the country and the international community. .
The religious have also denounced from the pulpit the human rights abuses committed by the regime, which cost 328 lives in 2018, caused thousands of injuries and sent more than 100,000 people into exile.
The Executive of Daniel Ortega insists that he is a victim of interventionism by the United States and the European Union, while keeping silent about the systematic violations of human rights and advancing in his harassment of the population, to the independent media and to the opposition.
“Dark ambitions for power”, describes the religious
“Today the dark ambitions of power of those who have shattered our country and their cynical speeches with which they have tried to distort history and hide the truth seem to prevail. However, the story of Nicaragua does not end today. Today is not the end, but the beginning of a stage full of challenges and hopes, of struggles and commitments, of unity and generosity, ”urged Báez, who called for hope.
Commenting on the biblical reading this Sunday, on the story of the woman who handed over the only two coins she had in the temple in front of Jesus read from the book of Mark, Báez affirmed that the gospel certainly helps to illuminate the future of Nicaragua.
“It reveals to us the power of the small, the value of what seems insignificant but that, when it carries a lot of heart in its entrails and is done with disinterested love, produces surprising effects. We must appreciate and value the small, the little we can do and the little we achieve. There is a lot to do, but let’s not be overwhelmed, ”he encouraged.
The Carmelite religious asked citizens not to resign themselves to the fact that an authoritarian power decides for the whole of society and insisted on not forgetting the victims of repression or relegating the poor, ignoring their urgent social demands in the face of the increased cost of life and labor. unemployment.
In the opinion poll, carried out by CID Gallup, a large majority considered that the country is going in the wrong direction and demanded the freedom of political prisoners, while 78 percent considered that the voting results would be illegitimate without participation of the opposition.
“Nor can we simply turn the page of history, ignoring the truth and flouting justice. The future will be demanding. We need to assume the attitude of that poor widow who decided one day to give what little she had, showing us that true freedom, inner freedom, is born from a heart without ambitions, “he added.
