While participating in the civic demonstrationto “We are all Nicaragua”held in Miami, Florida, United States, the leaders of the Nicaraguan opposition Yubrank Suazo, Ireland Jerez, Bayron Estrada and Lesther Alemán They were physically and verbally attacked by an older American adult, whose identity is still unknown.
Suazo described this fact as a “targeted attack”, since the man “was waiting for the march” to commit his violent act. The political activist told Article 66 that, at first, the subject saw Alemán and went towards him, but the Nicaraguan “tried to avoid him.”
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The American later identified Suazo and walked directly to where he was. “He starts insulting me and what I do is continue the march and not try to pay more attention so as not to cause a bigger incident,” said the former political inmate.
Approximately one block from where Suazo was, Jerez was giving an interview to the journalist David Mendoza owner of the RB13 channel, when the aggressor, from behind, “jumped down to attack” the opponent.
“I want to emphasize that This was not an attack or an incident that could have been done ‘casually’. Everything in this person’s actions indicates that he had already identified the leaders he was going to confront and attack physically and verbally,” Suazo denounced.
The opponent expressed that “at one point, I felt the fear that this person could carry a weapon and could attack us, causing greater damage to any of us or to the participants of the march.”
It was “the long arm of the regime”
For his part, Jerez commented to this media outlet that the fact that “a person gets involved like this in a Nicaraguan demonstration, where there are American citizens, residents, political asylum seekers and a huge number of people who were marching, is evidently against our legitimate defense of freedom of expression.
«Our march on this sixth anniversary takes place in the context that, six years ago, we took to the streets to protest and that our denunciation continues against the dictatorship. Therefore (the aggressor) is a person identified as an eenemy of our position and an ally in favor of the Sandinista dictatorship», said the released politician.
Jerez indicated that the American attacked Estrada with blows and bites and agreed that the attack was planned, since “there were hundreds of people and (the aggressor) just headed towards us.” “This is the ‘long arm’ of the dictatorship that sends all kinds of henchmen to try to frighten us or silence us,” he denounced.
Furthermore, other participants in the march confirmed to the human rights defender that the man “was of sound mind, because when he came to us he was yelling at us and I did not smell alcohol on his breath.”
They will file a complaint
Suazo confirmed that he and Jerez will join the complaint that Estrada filed against the citizen with the Miami Police. “We are not going to leave any precedent in which the long arm of Daniel Ortega’s regime tries to intimidate us and silence us even from exile.”
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Furthermore, the political leader highlighted that when Estrada presented himself to the Police to file the complaint, the American had already beaten them to the task. “After the incident of the march occurred, the Police took the man to the delegation and he immediately filed the accusation against us, as if we had been the aggressors,” Suazo explained.
Suazo reported that the official authorities did not provide him with more information about the case and that until tomorrow, April 23, Estrada could receive details about the aggressor.
