Nicaraguan opposition organizations and other civil groups commemorated this Monday the fourth anniversary of the demonstrations against the government of President Daniel Ortega, which began with some social security reforms and later became a demand for his resignation because he responded with the force.
Nicaraguan organizations, both within their country and in exile, began this day of commemoration demanding the freedom of 181 “political prisoners.”
The rest of the week they will celebrate masses and public or clandestine demonstrations to demand justice and to ask for the end of Ortega’s mandate, in power since 2007.
A group of 62 organizations made up of opponents, relatives or victims of the demonstrations, neutralized by the government with weapons and in which at least 355 people died, signed a public message in which they stated that “the fall of the dictatorship will only be possible through concerted and well-organized work between the international community and the unified opposition in Nicaragua.”
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The relatives of the victims spoke in a similar way, calling “all the Nicaraguan opposition to maintain, extend and intensify the search for full justice and the establishment of democracy in Nicaragua, to correctly interpret the support of the international community for this struggle”.
“IRREVERSIBLE PROCESS AGAINST ORTEGA”
The Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy, which was the government’s counterpart at a negotiating table seeking a peaceful solution to the crisis, pointed out, for its part, that “the resistance of the Nicaraguan people in these four years It has been admirable, despite the criminal onslaught of the Ortegas and (his wife, Vice President Rosario) Murillo.”
“As time passes, the dictatorship wears down and breaks down more deeply,” valued the Civic Alliance.
“An irreversible popular process has begun in search of freedom, they are axioms of history, and faith and hope indicate this because ‘whoever has opened his eyes will never sleep peacefully’, until he achieves his freedom ”, indicated in a statement the Christian Social Humanist Party of Nicaragua.
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While the organizations announced the commemorations from exile, relatives of the victims, people who went to prison in previous years for protesting against Ortega, and well-known opponents at the community level, denounced that their homes were surrounded by police from early hours.
The relatives recalled that it should be “considered that the excesses, the crimes and repeated violations of the human rights of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, are evidence of their madness.”
The Nicaraguan Human Rights Collective Never Again detailed that, of the 355 killed in armed attacks against anti-government demonstrations in 2018, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), 27 were minors, 15 women and 23 police officers.
“Since then, thousands of victims demand truth, justice, reparation and non-repetition,” he stressed.
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“We will continue fighting to achieve justice for the victims, freedom for political prisoners and democracy for all of Nicaragua,” said the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), which paid tribute to the anniversary virtually.
The commemorations of the opponents will continue publicly in countries such as Costa Rica, Guatemala or the United States, with photographic exhibitions, street protests, masses, among others, while in Nicaragua some will erect clandestine altars, to avoid reprisals, as announced by the organizations.
