The government of President Daniel Ortega seeks to eliminate any loophole in the social demands that triggered the protests against him in 2018. Just one week after the anti-government demonstrations that left more than 300 dead and a serious social crisis, the National Police has focused on selective arrests and raids this Tuesday.
Human rights organizations in Managua recorded at least 11 raids on the homes of some relatives of the victims of 2018. They assure that their interest was to avoid activities demanding justice.
“The police came early, they entered suddenly and began to search the entire house. They put us against the wall and warned us that they did not want to see us involved in the protest and propaganda of the Catholic Church,” denounced a relative who remained anonymous.
Six arrests were also reported, of which four are musicians, according to a monitoring carried out by the opposition group Unidad Azul y Blanco (Unab). The detainees belong to the Monroy and Surmenage gang, in Managua; as well as the production company Saxo Producciones, according to informs the newspaper the press.
Some of the detainees would have given statements days ago in which they sent a message to the victims of April 2018 in Nicaragua.
So far, the Ortega government has not reported anything about the arrests that human rights lawyers call “illegal and arbitrary”, however days ago the State spokeswoman and vice president, Rosario Murillo, had issued threats against any demonstration against her. .
“We will never, ever allow them to attack peace, harmony and the spirit of our people, which is one of joy, work, and good will!” Murillo said in his speech on April 7.
The Police is led by Commissioner Francisco Diazbrother-in-law of Daniel Ortega, and is currently sanctioned by the United States government which accuses him of committing grave abuses against the human rights of the people of Nicaragua.
The climate of repression that exists in Managua occurs at the same time as the Department of State will publish a report where he affirms that Nicaragua has an “authoritarian and highly centralized” political system by Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo.
“Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front party exercises total control over the executive, legislative, judicial, and electoral functions of the country,” indicates the United States report that warns that the president won a fourth consecutive term in the November elections. after arbitrarily jailing nearly 40 opposition figures.
“I regret indignant raids at Easter”; says Nicaraguan priest
The recent actions of the Nicaraguan ruling party have been repudiated by the country’s democratic sectors, who have branded them as “state terrorism.”
Father Edwin Román, who is currently in Miami for security reasons, told the voice of america that with these raids on the relatives of the victims and political prisoners of Masaya “the dictatorship continues to demonstrate its loneliness, and its weakness with these acts of repression.”
He also regretted that in these days of Holy Week, “when we Christians try to enter into an interior silence and reflection commemorating the events of the Passion and death of Our Lord, these disturbing events occur, that violate human rights in Nicaragua.”
“I demand religious freedom without the constant siege of the faithful and the temples,” concluded the priest.
The anti-government protests in Nicaragua began on April 18, 2018 and left hundreds dead and thousands exiled, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The State had great participation in the acts by repressing civilians and university students who demanded the repeal of a decree that raised social security contributions.
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