The Mothers of April Association (AMA) made a public call this Monday to declare “national mourning” on May 30, the date on which Mother’s Day is celebrated in Nicaragua and on which four years ago, Daniel Ortega’s regime attacked the so-called “March of the Mothers” causing the death of 19 Nicaraguans.
The AMA proposal is given in response to the initiative promoted by the head of the National Assembly, the Ortega deputy, Gustavo Porras, to declare Nicaraguan Mother’s Day a national holiday.
?? DECLARATION ??
?? From the Mothers of April Association we declare May 30 as National Mourning Day for the murders of our children and relatives that constitute crimes against humanity still in impunity ??#4YearsWithoutJustice #AMAyNoOlvida pic.twitter.com/a4dXy2FWG0– April Mothers Association (AMA) (@MadresDeAbril) May 16, 2022
“Given the declaration of May 30 as a national holiday, decreed by the dictatorship, let us declare May 30: Day of National Mourning,” the organization proposed through a statement published on its Twitter account.
On May 30, 2018, in the context of the sociopolitical crisis that Nicaragua has been experiencing for four years, a massive opposition march in Managua ended up drenched in bloode, just after Ortega sentenced in a speech before his followers that “Nicaragua belongs to all of us and we all stay here.”
That fateful day 19 Nicaraguans lost their lives: eight were killed in Managua, seven in Estelí; three in Chinandega and one in Masaya, since there were also parallel marches in the departments. Another 199 people were injured in the bloodiest Mother’s Day in Nicaragua, and since then the opposition, which described that event as a “massacre”, He remembers it with vigils, attending masses or with messages demanding justice.
In AMA’s opinion, the government is trying to “bury the massacre perpetrated” during the massive demonstration four years ago, which was called “The mother of the marches” and occupied several kilometers of the Managua highway that leads to Masaya.
“Faced with the regime’s refusal to recognize the crimes against humanity committed, with the refusal to investigate the facts, with the lie that the dictatorship intends to impose: let us unite our intelligence and knowledge from the different trenches to clarify the truth and prevent impunity.” , demanded AMA.
crimes in impunity
The organization called for joint efforts “to prevent silence, so that the cry of the mothers of Nicaragua not only resounds throughout the world, but that they make it their own to pave the way to the truth that brings those responsible for the crimes to justice. crimes against humanity committed against the children of Nicaragua”.
Until now, the Nicaraguan authorities have used to give as a holiday half of the day on May 30, when it is an ordinary working day, on the occasion of Nicaraguan Mother’s Day.
In the case of the private company, workers have permission to be absent, as long as they reach a prior agreement with their employers.
Parliament is expected to approve the initiative to declare a national holiday on May 30 on the occasion of Nicaraguan Mother’s Day this Tuesday.
The massacre of May 30 is added to the crimes committed by the Ortega regime in the context of the Civic Rebellion of 2018, which according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) encrypt in 355 murders and that still remain in impunity.
