Vice President Rosario Murillo increased her attacks against thousands of opponents, independent media and priests, one week before the fourth anniversary of the April protests.
Murillo not only called thousands of people who participated in the demonstrations in which they peacefully called for a change of government “Somocistas”, but also warned them that they “will not return” nor will there be “forgiveness or forgetfulness for the criminals” in reference to thousands of people whom the State accused of an attempted coup.
“We will never, ever allow them to attack peace, harmony and the spirit of our people, which is one of joy, work, and good will!” Murillo emphasized in his speech on April 7 last.
The vice president is known for publicly insulting opponents with disqualifications such as “tiny”, “hooligans”, “wimps”, “bloodsucker”, “chingastes”, among others, and for giving the order in private to the Sandinista bases that they go with “everything” against the protesters.
“There is a lot of fear on their part (the presidential couple) that leads them to paranoia. It is a reflection of your desires. The protest was silenced but it does not mean that it will not return, the reasons why it arose are there: They have Nicaragua kidnapped,” former opposition deputy Eliseo Núñez, currently in exile, said by telephone.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held that 355 people They were murdered between April 2018 and July 2019, as a result of the excessive use of force by the authorities—made up of the Police and paramilitaries—thousands were also injured and more than 100,000 people went into exile to protect their integrity.
Murillo emphasized in his speech last week his attack to the independent media, whom he accused of manipulating information and staging a choreography with the 2018 protests.
In reality, thousands of citizens rose up against Ortega and Murillo. They put up barricades to defend themselves from the aggression of police and paramilitaries in their neighborhoods, which were cleared with blood and fire before July 19, 2018, when the 39th anniversary of the Sandinista popular revolution was celebrated.
“They wanted some, those destroyers of peace, they wanted the world to believe that the insurrection was repeating itself in Nicaragua. What there was was crime, organized crime, that’s what there was, with choreographic productions that simulated the epic of the insurrection. Who believed them? Nobody!” added the regime spokeswoman.
Since 2018, the country’s human rights situation has worsened. Ortega and Murillo were re-elected in votes without electoral competition after imprisoning his main opponents. A police state is in force that violates civil rights and there are 181 political prisoners. One part of the opposition is under surveillance, while another is trying to reorganize in exile.
The government spokeswoman also criticized those who dared to “bless the crimes”, referring to priests and bishops who assumed an important role in the defense of human rights. Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua, told EFE this Sunday, April 10, that the kingdoms of this world are fragile.
“They don’t have a strong base, although many times they give the impression of having them, but they don’t (…). Christ comes to establish a kingdom that has a strong base (…), an important and key element of this kingdom of God (…) is forgiveness, “said Brenes.
Murillo as Putin “tries to impose a parallel reality”
Murillo’s claim that the 2018 protests were “choreographed” is similar to that made by Russia around the massacre in Bucha, during its military invasion of Ukraine, which a Kremlin spokeswoman described as a “set-up.”
“Ortega’s model is that of Russia, not Venezuela. It is a capitalism of compadres, where they get rich and pay with impunity and money. They want to create a parallel reality. They live in a fantasy world. They end up having a distorted perception of reality that they transfer to the official discourse,” said the former legislator.
Núñez added that both Murillo and Putin have the similarity of considering that “if you think differently, you simply have no right” and the insults in Murillo’s case seek to “dehumanize the opponent,” he explains about the Nicaraguan-Russian alliance.
Nicaragua rejected by the United Nations the expulsion of Russia from the Human Rights Council, because of the massacre in Ukraine. The decision was adopted with 93 of 193 possible votes. The decision of the majority of countries was described by Ortega as an aggression against the Russian people and as a violation of human rights.
“The Government of Unity and National Reconciliation will continue in the United Nations, raising its voice in the struggle for Peace and the establishment of a just international order,” the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
A diplomat, consulted on condition of anonymity, said that the alliance between the Nicaraguan dictator and Putin is mafia. “Ortega has become the Putin of Central America, the most outstanding disciple in American lands of the Ukrainian butcher,” he said.
For the expert in international relations, Ortega is the “beachhead” of Russian interests in the Central American region and all his Putin allies on the continent are seeking to destroy democracies. For him, the statement from the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry is shameless, taking into account the Russian bombardments against civilian targets and the killing of children, women and the elderly in Ukraine.
“This positioning through the vote in the UN (United Nations) clearly places the Nicaragua of Ortega and Murillo in the club of rogue states or outlaws, totalitarian dictatorships, kleptocracies, that do not respect international law or international norms. nationals. Democratic countries must therefore design and develop truly effective strategies to confront the danger posed by regimes like Ortega’s in the Americas,” he suggested.
