The National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua) sent a circular to inform teachers and administrators about the change in the institutional motto. The state university announces the elimination of the expression «To freedom for the university!»which had accompanied that house of studies since the times of the Somoza dictatorship, when this Alma Mater became a bastion of resistance against that other dynastic regime.
Rather «To freedom for the university!»now UNAN-Managua adopts the motto of «University of the People and for the People!», an expression that more identifies the academic institution with the propaganda of the new Sandinista dictatorship, which must appear in all official documents, starting Tuesday, April 23.
The letter It was addressed to the heads of Directorates, Knowledge Areas, Regional University Centers and Research Centers. It indicates that the “General Secretariat of UNAN-Managua, in use of its powers, hereby communicates that in ordinary session 19-2024, on April 15, 2024, the Board of Directors” approved the implementation of the new phrase .
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The Ortega officials justify the elimination of the pro-freedom slogan with the argument that “at the time it identified us with the fight to vindicate our rights, but currently we enjoy a different context,” thereby confirming the sting it causes. to the tyranny of the Ortega Murillo that exists, even the word “freedom” in institutional slogans.
And as if it were not enough for them to exhibit their submissive behavior to Sandinism, the UNAN-Managua authorities add that “thanks to our good Government of Reconciliation and National Unity, all Nicaraguans enjoy peace, tranquility, and our right to health.” and free, quality education.
A lack of respect
Upon learning of this new change, a professor who teaches at UNAN-Managua told Article 66, on condition of anonymity, that this is “a lack of respect for the university” and an attempt by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo to “politicize everything even more.”
«It is the same phrase that they used to promote the inauguration of the Casimiro Sotelo (University). “It is part of their campaign of wanting to use the same messages that the government imposes on state institutions in education,” he indicated.
The teacher stated that this is a demonstration of the “fear” that the dictatorial couple has of the university students. “I don’t see the need to change the motto that has accompanied and represented UNAN for so many years, but they (Ortega-Murillo) are so terrified by the simple fact that the word “university” and “freedom” are in the same prayer. “It reminds them of the power that critically thinking students have, something they have tried to eliminate in every way possible,” he commented.
Likewise, the professor warned that there will probably be more changes “of this type” in the future. “They are not going to stop until they have absolutely everything under their control and there is no person who repeats what they do not want to hear,” lamented the professor.
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According to UNAN-Managua official website, «To freedom for the University!» was a phrase used by the rector Mariano Fiallos Gil, father of university autonomy, in a talk addressed to a group of students in 1957. The meaning of this phrase is “the freedom of academic teaching, of thought, and the training of the student as a human being in the exercise of his duties and rights as individuals.” free.”
The training of professionals in Nicaragua has been compromised by the Ortega regime, which seeks to eliminate critical thinking and university autonomy. Given this situation, the Bridges for Students of Nicaragua Initiative (Ipen) shared a statement about how “education in the country is under attack.”
In the statement, the group mentions that “the denunciation of the authoritarian regime’s continuous attacks against Nicaraguan education has not stopped.” According to the organization, the regime promotes “political and partisan indoctrination in educational institutions as well as the loss of university autonomy.”
Sandinista repression against the university
Since Daniel Ortega returned to the government in 2007, he has not ceased his attempt to subjugate the university but, above all, after April 2018, when young university students led the rebellion, the FSLN has strengthened its process of cooptation, subjugation and repression against the student and teaching community.
After taking over the public universities, the Sandinistas attacked the students with fury, particularly at UNAN-Managua, where young university students had barricaded themselves.
On July 13, 2018, the regime launched an armed operation that killed two students and left several injured. Later, the FSLN, with the complicity of the university authorities and student leaders of the Sandinista Union of Nicaraguan Students (UNEN), expelled more than 100 students and at least a dozen professors who had declared themselves anti-Sandinistas.
Over the years, the persecution against dissident teachers and students has not ceased. The latest victim of Sandinism is the veteran professor Freddy Quezada, one of the most renowned intellectuals that UNAN-Managua had in recent decades and who, after his dismissal from that university for expressing his support for its students, maintained his criticism against the dictatorship. through their social networks.
Professor Freddy Quezada remains imprisoned and incommunicado in the cells of La Modelo prison, in Tipitapa, and the university authorities of his former house of study maintain the same complicit and submissive silence in the face of the tyranny of the Ortega Murillo family.
