Five years have passed since the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo murdered more than 300 young people who participated in the so-called: April 2018 rebellion. Justice has not arrived, while the mothers and fathers of the victims have not been able to mourn in peace either.
The Mothers of April (AMA), as they are known, have had to mourn in silence for the loss of their children, the breakup of their families due to forced exile, the persecution and siege by the dictatorship and its partners in crime.
Francisca Machado, mother of Franco Valdivia, the law student and rap singer, murdered on April 20 in Estelí’s central park while participating in a civic rally, confesses that she feels “alone in Nicaragua.” Since 2018, Francisca has faced hopelessness and loneliness with pain. Her only two children are not by her side. Franco was assassinated and Francis, her daughter, is in exile to protect her integrity from persecution.
Related news: Day to commemorate five years of the April rebellion announced
“After my son’s life was taken, it has been a great pain, an irreparable loss. The family was destroyed, displaced, everything changed completely. (…) The same persecution that we experience is something very painful, because I have to be living that duel alone, because the people who want to accompany me in those moments cannot because of the same repression that exists, “Francisca said.
They have not been able to live their mourning
On each anniversary of Franco’s assassination, his mother wishes to celebrate mass, pray, and visit the grave in peace. But it has not been possible due to the permanent siege that she lives from, which does not even allow her to go to the grave with those who accompany her in her pain.
“We can’t even go to the cemetery in peace. Last year, on November 2, I went to the cemetery and there were paramilitaries there near Franco’s grave, taking photos, watching, seeing what we were doing and also taking photos of all the people who came to visit the grave and also to see who came to visit him,” he said.
Even in this process of mourning, impotence and pain, there are forces to continue demanding justice. «We will not get tired of demanding justice, I believe that until our last breath, we will continue demanding justice for our murdered children. Justice will be my last words », he claimed.
The duel in exile
Added to that cry of denunciation Martha Liramother of Ezequiel Mendoza, the 22-year-old murdered in the Oronte Centeno neighborhood in Tipitapa, on June 14, 2018, when the paramilitaries, together with the police, came to lift the roadblocks and repress the locals.
She, since before 2018, had migrated to Costa Rica for economic reasons and frequently traveled to Nicaragua, but after the murder of her son, she fears returning to the country due to the persecution that the regime imposes on her when demanding justice for the crime.
“It has been a tireless waiting struggle. It’s been five years now and we have seen no progress or very little progress in the entire context. It has been difficult for me because I am practically a refugee from all this. I am necessarily a refugee, because I cannot calmly go to Nicaragua to see my family, or visit my son’s grave. For me it has been difficult and hard, because I cannot spend time with my mother, “said Lira, with a broken voice.
This uncertainty of impunity, the pain of losing a child and not having the freedom to visit his family has led to chronic illnesses. “Many fathers and mothers are sick. During these five years, some parents are no longer with us. It has been five years now and we have not seen a resolution in all this search for justice,” said Lira.
not even demand justice
The mothers assured that in Nicaragua there is no will to follow up on these cases. “They are in a drawer,” agree Martha and Francisca. Going to the Prosecutor’s Office to ask about the progress of the investigations poses a risk of being arrested. Therefore, the complaint is made public and before international organizations to leave records.
The Mothers of April Association has denounced the delay in justice before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), before the Special Mechanism for Follow-up in Nicaragua (Meseni), before the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), as well as before organizations local human rights
«The experts can give the resolution of something, but another thing is that the State yields or recognizes that it has committed crimes against humanity. All of this is frustrating and I don’t know if I’ll be there for five more years,” Lira resents.
AMA, which integrates mothers and relatives of the 355 young people killed in the 2018 rebellion, remains firm in its demand for justice, memory and non-impunity. «What keeps me going is the hope and trust in God that I will always have justice one day, even if it is the last thing I do. Anywhere, in any medium or any occasion I have, I will continue to ask for justice for my son Franco,” Francisca stressed.
In previous years, the agency has called on the people of Nicaragua to “tear down the wall of absolute impunity” and insist that the repressive measures of the regime do not bury the will to resist and thirst for justice for their children.
For this year, they plan to issue a statement commemorating the fifth anniversary of the murder of their children, they will hold masses and sit-ins in the countries where the Nicaraguan diaspora is concentrated, given that all kinds of concentrations are restricted in the country.
By United Voices
