More than 70 opposition organizations in exile and in Nicaragua promote a stoppage of fuel consumption, as well as the campaign “I turn off a candle.” This form of protest against the Ortega regime is scheduled for Wednesday, June 1, and then progressively every Wednesday.
The leaders of the initiative reported through a statement dated the 26th of this month, that this form of protest is for the fourth anniversary of the April massacre of May 30, 2018, in which at least 15 young people died in an attack armed against a march against the Sandinista government.
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In interview with Article 66Yaritza Mairena, coordinator of the Union of Political Prisoners of Nicaragua (UPPN), indicated that the initiative arose through a space where a joint strategy was created.
Mairena explained that this consumption strike is focused in the first instance on fuel, which is —according to the opponent— the one that generates the most profit for the dictatorship, “and also because it focuses on other aspects such as the rise in fuel itself, since that there is little regulation.
“The idea is that the boycott against the dictatorship be a habit and that the stoppage of consumption be more progressive, so that it reduces the profits of the regime,” he added.
The former politician called on the Nicaraguan people to maintain the resistance, “because no one is going to remove the dictatorship. It has to be an action of the Nicaraguans themselves.”
For his part, the academic Ernesto Medina, a member of the agglutinated groups, explained in a recent virtual conference that the objective of these forms of protest is “to suspend the economic income that the dictatorship uses for the repression against the people, to reduce the consumption of electricity, as this is one of the businesses of the dictatorship».
Eighth week of fuel freeze in Nicaragua
For its part, the Ortega regime, through the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the Nicaraguan Institute of Energy (INE), reported that for the week between May 29 and June 4, the price of fuel and liquefied gas will remain frozen. .
Related news: Ortega freezes the price of fuel for the eighth week
This is the eighth week that the Nicaraguan government claims to assume the cost of fuel, despite the fact that this week the wti Oil, which is the benchmark for Nicaragua, dropped in price.
In the repeated official statement released on Friday, May 27, in the propaganda media of the Ortega dictatorship, it states that “given the constant increase they have had since the beginning of 2021” (…) the government assumes “with its resources » the cost of super, regular gasoline, diesel and liquefied gas.
Since 2021, the price of fuel has been rising in a worrying way for the Nicaraguan population. Currently super gasoline is priced at almost 50 córdobas per liter, which has led to the cost of the basic basket rising.
Faced with this crisis that Nicaragua is experiencing, the president of the UPPN emphasized that it is necessary to raise our voices in protest because “we cannot be waiting for the international community to resolve the crisis in Nicaragua, but rather we must maintain active resistance against Ortega ».