Nicaraguan communities gathered in Miami, Madrid, Lima, Ottawa, Zaragoza, Oakland, Mexico, San Francisco, Geneva, Barcelona, San José (Costa Rica), New York, Montreal, Panama City and Los Angeles, among other cities in America and Europe, to remember the fourth anniversary of the April Rebellion.
Hundreds marched in the so-called “March of the Crosses” in Miami to demand justice for those killed by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo during the 2018 protests and freedom for more than 170 political prisoners.
blue and white flags; crosses with the names of the murdered, photos and caricatures with their faces; poetry, dances, and Nicaraguan music, were present in the activities in which it was insistently demanded the end of impunity and that the country can take the path of democracy.
Slogans that once shouted in the streets of Nicaragua and that today cannot be expressed due to the brutal repression of the regime and the police state were heard through loudspeakers and megaphones in the march of the exiles: “What are you leaving, they are leaving!, “They were students, they were not criminals!”, “Freedom for Nicaragua!”.
The “March of the Crosses” that started “from the consulate kidnapped by the corrupt dictatorship” to honor the fourth anniversary of the civic struggle called for “freedom for each and every one of those who are kidnapped in those horrific prisons.”
10 seconds of the march of the crosses in Miami. RT pic.twitter.com/CIQgJk3fyx
– Winston P. (@nicaperiodista) April 17, 2022
In San José, Costa Rica, the Red de Mujeres Pinoleras organized a fair of Nicaraguan products and foods, which not only allowed the participants to commune with the flavors, smells and colors of Nicaraguan gastronomy, but also offered a space to make visible the undertakings of these citizens pushed into exile.
Jacob Ellis Williams, who identified himself as founder Y coordinator of the Network, explained that “this is a way to show the people of Nicaragua, from the sorority, that art and culture are forms of resistance… that we do not forget the April Rebellion, and that, even outside the country, we continue resisting.”
“Since I joined as founder of the coordination of the Network, for me it was a plus to be able to position our meals, blackness and the Caribbean, because that allows me to feel closer to my territory, even though we are far away”, he added.
we can protest
“From April, to freedom! They are leaving, they are leaving!” shouted the demonstrators in Zaragoza, while advocating that, when the country is free again, an educational system be implemented that trains citizens for life in democracy, rejecting the violence that , from the classrooms, have sometimes been implanted in the minds of children.
“This is how dictatorships begin: changing educational systems, making us mediocre, making the people ignorant in order to manipulate them more. In Nicaragua they disrupted the educational system when they began to teach us to count bullets and rifles,” said a protester in Plaza España, Zaragoza.
One of the organizers of that activity, who prefers to omit his name, because “I fear for my mother and my brothers, who are still in Nicaragua,” reported that “about a hundred exiles and residents gathered in the emblematic Plaza España (autonomous community of Aragon), to commemorate four years of civic struggle.
“Slogans were chanted during the activity demanding the freedom of political prisoners. Despite being a Sunday of religious festivities, and that most work as interns, the goal of bringing together more than a hundred Nicaraguans was achieved. Although there is fear of reprisals that our relatives in Nicaragua may suffer, we continue to demand the end of the dictatorship,” the source explained.
In Lima, Peru, the Nicaraguan community held a sit-in in Kennedy Park, Miraflores district, attended by residents and recent exiles, to play testimonial music, much of it created in the heat of April, as well as to show images that portrayed the civic struggle on the one hand, and the regime’s repression on the other, told CONFIDENTIAL one of the attendees, who preferred to remain anonymous.
The source highlighted that, although it is a very small community that is scattered throughout the Peruvian capital and throughout the country, the organization seeks to contact Nicaraguans who oppose the regime, in addition to developing activism on social networks, because they are convinced that “ the spirit of april lives on”.
“In Nicaragua there are no conditions for citizens to go out to demonstrate, for fear of repression, but those of us who are abroad continue to fight, and we are adding citizens, between the new ones who are arriving, and those who are already established in those countries to nurture that community that maintains the spirit of struggle and the conviction that Nicaragua has to leave the dictatorship firm and indomitable,” he assured.
Free the political prisoners!
A member of the Political Prisoners Released Reflection Group (GREX), took the opportunity to commemorate the fourth anniversary of April 2018, while demanding the release of “more than 170 political prisoners, and the freedom of Nicaragua. We are always fighting, and we will continue to fight until we overthrow the murderer we have in Nicaragua”, he promised.
Another Nicaraguan stated that the country is “continuing to resist clandestinely” and called for “no one to forget that freedoms were confiscated, as the government confiscates the facilities of civil society organizations and cancels their legal status.” , with the intention of making a Republic his farm, facts that we repudiate. From the territories, we demand and demand respect for autonomy and freedom of association”.
The Nicas based in Mexico join the commemoration of 4 A of resistance.
From Exile we resist being the voice of the thousands who within Nic cannot express themselves.#AprilNoseOlvida#AlwaysSeraApril#SOSNicaragua #No forgiveness, nor forgetness #Freedom for political prisoners pic.twitter.com/Pguje0pytH– Marvin Alvarez (@comapastor) April 17, 2022
Additionally, it was pointed out that “we firmly believe that as long as the means exist, as long as the fighting spirit is there, and as long as there are people like you and me, there is hope for change, hope for a rule of law, a path to be built, and a society to include, which is why April is not forgotten. April lives in everyone.
This Monday 18 continues a week of activities that includes a press conference of international scope; presentation of two books in Costa Rica, one from the Association of Mothers of April, and another from the University Coordinator; a forum on youth participation, and another on the future of Nicaragua; masses, vigils, and the broadcast in various cities and online of the documentary ‘Patria Libre Para Vivir’, detailed Ana Quirós, member of the Political Council of the Blue and White National Unity.
