Susana López, mother of Gerald Vásquez, demanded that Daniel Ortega’s regime be held “responsible” for the murder of her son, who was shot in the head during the attack on the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua) , on July 14, 2018. Today marks the fourth anniversary of that crime, which still remains unpunished.
At a press conference, López, accompanied by delegates from the Nicaraguan Never Again Human Rights Collective, announced that she will present the case of Gerald Vásquez before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) with the aim of having the inter-American system investigate the dictatorship of Ortega-Murillo for the murder of his son.
“I demand that he be held responsible for the murder of my son, for the events that occurred within the university, because they also violated the rights of the students, violated the autonomy of the university,” said mother Vásquez, who is in exile. for the political persecution against him.
Related news: Four years have passed since the “massacre” against those entrenched in the Divina Misericordia church
The defender Wendy Flores indicated that in the context of Gerald Vásquez’s anniversary, “doña Susana (López) has asked us to present a petition to the IACHR for the death of her son so that it does not go unpunished.”
The lawyer also stressed that “the amnesty law put a tombstone in the search for justice in our country, but that does not mean that it is an impediment for the inter-American system to investigate human rights violations, since the amnesty law in These types of cases should not proceed, it is a law that violates human rights, as has already been declared by the different international bodies.
In addition, he hopes that in the future “with their proper investigation, the perpetrators responsible for this massacre, for Gerald’s death, will one day be seated before the courts of justice and can be held accountable.”
Susana López denounced the team of Article 66 that «four years after the death of my son we have not had justice, (…) always reminding the State of Nicaragua that the crime of Gerald (Vásquez) and Francisco (Flores) continue in impunity; The government really hasn’t taken responsibility.”
“It is a very sad day, because he was already with his career, whether he was a professional, where the government does not even recognize him,” he said.
July 13 marked the fourth anniversary of the bloody and brutal attack carried out by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo against the university students who were barricaded in the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua), who had to take refuge in the church Divine Mercy trying to escape from the bullets.
According to the testimonies of the victims, the operation was carried out by paramilitaries, members of the National Police and the Sandinista Youth (JS), who were carrying weapons of war and their objective was to deploy, at any cost, the people entrenched in higher education center.
On July 13, 2018, the attacks by Ortega’s shock forces forced the students entrenched in the UNAN-Managua to flee and take refuge in the Divina Misericordia church, which is located a few blocks from the university campus and had its doors open. There were more than 14 hours of massive attack that the students received between July 13 and 14 of that year.
