A group of self-convened Nicaraguans, in Canada, will hold a sit-in to commemorate five years of the civic rebellion of April 2018. The activity will take place next Sunday, April 16, at three in the afternoon, in Square Dorchester Park, in Montréal.
María Méndez, part of the organizers of the mobilization, told Article 66 that self-convened from Ottawa and Toronto will join the mobilization “to remember all the heroes and martyrs who gave their lives to see a free Nicaragua.”
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“It is a sad day for all the -human- losses, but at the same time we remember that everything that is April gave us a lot of strength because the people rose up.”
Méndez called on the Nicaraguan people, who are still in the country, to continue in resistance and that they are not alone “because one day the dictator -Daniel Ortega- will have to leave.”
They reject the closure of the Roxham Road border
Another of the reasons for the sit-in, according to the self-convened, is to demand the reopening of Roxham Road, the border between Canada and the United States, located between the province of Quebec and the State of New York, about 50 km south of Montreal.
“The sit-in is also to express disagreement with the Prime Minister’s decision Justin Trudeau to extend the Safe Third Country Agreement to the entire border. Many of our brothers who are fleeing a cruel dictatorship are looking for a safe place to settle with their families and Canada could offer them that safe place,” the event organizers added.
They also indicate that this is where the majority of migrants from Nicaragua, Haiti, Turkey, Colombia, Chile, Pakistan and Venezuela have entered the Canadian country.
They recalled that, according to data from the Canadian government, two out of three asylum applications in Canada, in 2022, were made in Quebec and that “close to 40,000 asylum seekers crossed the border using the Roxham Road path that year.
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It should be noted that with the closure of the Roxham Road border, only people who have a relative in Canada with correct status, are an unaccompanied child, under 18 years of age, are at risk of the death penalty and have a correct canadian visa
After the political crisis that Nicaragua is experiencing, thousands of citizens had to flee to avoid being victims of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, and to be able to have a better economic opportunity, however, many have found it difficult, even losing, their lives.
In the case of Canada, according to María Méndez, many migrants —not Nicaraguans— have perished in their attempt to cross the Saint-Laurent River.
