“The past is them.” This is how the newspaper responded this Wednesday the pressthe most important and oldest in Nicaragua, after its facilities were confiscated by the government of President Daniel Ortega a day earlier.
The phrase of the newspaper, which is now operating digitally, is in reference to statements made by the vice president of Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, who celebrated the seizure of the building that she called “a den” where “crimes against humanity are plotted ” and inaugurated the José Coronel Urtecho Cultural and Polytechnic Center.
“The past will not return, that is decreed, the past of hatred, the past of contempt for the Nicaraguan majorities, the past of ignorance of infamous poverty, will not return,” said Murillo, sanctioned by the United States.
About The press issued a statement where he recalled that during its 96 years of life it has suffered closures, imprisonment of managers and journalists, the murder of its director, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, bombings and the burning of its facilities.
Similarly, “the siege of fanatical mobs, censorship, customs blockade of the supplies that make their printing possible, and, finally, the occupation and theft of their real estate, their facilities and work equipment.” However, they stressed that they will continue to report, even with their entire newsroom in exile.
“The past is them. They represent all the negative values that La Prensa has faced. They will be able to confiscate our equipment and our facilities, but they will not be able to against the values that sustain our work. Once again they want to bury us, and as has happened on other occasions, the ones buried will be them,” the newspaper added.
IAPA catalogs the occupation of the La Prensa building as “robbery”
The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) condemned the Nicaraguan government for the actions against the building of the press in Managua, valued at about 10 million dollars, and indicated that “it was a consummation of the robbery and dismantling” of its facilities.
“This corroborates the evident official persecution against independent journalism in that country,” the IAPA added.
Similarly, he recalled that previously, the Ortega administration also confiscated other media, including Confidential Y 100% Newswhose headquarters were converted into a maternity home and a care center for addicts, respectively.
The IAPA expressed its solidarity with the directors and staff of La Prensa, who yesterday responded to the regime with an announcement on their website: “No dictatorship has shown as much viciousness against the values that La Prensa represents, as that of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo “.
The IAPA reiterated the validity of the Declaration on Nicaragua, signed by 27 national and international press organizations last April, which denounced Ortega and condemned the forced exile of more than 120 journalists.
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