On May 30, 2018, the life of Mrs. Candelaria Díaz changed forever. Not only did she lose a son during the repression that the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo unleashed that day, but her peace of mind never returned to her house. Five years after that tragedy, she works as a housewife in a neighborhood of San José, in Costa Rica.
This is how this woman from Monimbo earns her living, serving another family, in a country that is not hers, because hers was persecuted. Those who know Doña Candelaria describe her as a simple and hard-working woman, matron of a valued family in this city.
On May 30, five years ago, the day on which she, like many Nicaraguan mothers should be celebrated as Mother’s Day, the bloody repression of the Ortega dictatorship, killed her son Carlos Manuel Díaz. The protester was shot in the chest, near the Monimbó square.
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His name is part of the list of 355 people killed by orders of the regime, as documented by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, IACHR.
pain forever
When they brought her dead son home, Dona Candelaria fell to her knees and asked over and over again, “why did they kill me?”. She was inconsolable, pained by the loss of her and angry at the crime, while her neighbors expressed their solidarity with her.
Since that date, his pain has been permanent, like the demand for justice for the death of his offspring. It was not enough for the Ortega dictatorship to kill her son, but also sent the Sandinista mobs to besiege the anniversary mass that she dedicated to him in the San Miguel church, in Masaya. Later, she herself received threats.
The supporters of the dictatorship besieged it. They offended her and offended the memory of her son. The siege was such that her mother had no choice but to leave the country and go into exile in Costa Rica on October 22, 2021 to safeguard her physical integrity.
Petition to the US Ambassador to the UN
Today, with a calm voice, he says in this report that he wants to dedicate a few words to the United States ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who this Thursday is going to meet with Nicaraguan exiles in Costa Rica in the framework of the Democracy Summit that began this Wednesday in the United States.
«We as exiles, go hungry, contempt and there are people from that foreign country who take advantage. That is why every day, we ask God for the strength to continue fighting for our families. I want the ambassador to know that the situation in Nicaragua is very difficult,” Díaz said.
The mother who calls for justice recalled that the regime persecutes the Catholic Church and families face an economic crisis, for which no one can claim because they can go to jail. “With the little remittance that we send to our relatives, it is not enough for them to eat, which is why we ask for your help to put an end to this disastrous dictatorship and Nicaragua is free and we can return to our land,” Díaz said.
He took the opportunity to ask for justice for the death of his son and for the others murdered in the context of state repression against the civil protests that began in April 2018. “My son was killed by a sniper who was in the Masaya Handicrafts market, Just when he was crossing a street while supporting Monimbó’s fight, the shot entered his left nipple, it is painful for me,” he said.
“As a mother,” she added, “I ask the international community to put more pressure on us so that we have justice, that the ambassador (Thomas-Greenfield) take notes on our demands,” asked the grieving mother of Masaya.
By United Voices
