The residents of Wiwilí, Santa María de Pantasma and El Cuá, in Jinotega; They are concerned about the presence of armed civilians in their area, who, according to what they knew, they are receiving “military training” in the La Marañosa communityon farms belonging to well-known Ortega militants.
The community members made the complaint with great fear due to the proven repression of the regime and called on the Army authorities to investigate the issue, because they understand that it is the only institution that the laws of the country allow them to move armed and train their officers. and in their proper facilities.
They pointed out that fifteen days ago they traveled 60 workers from the different State institutions to this training, as confirmed by one of them who does not seem to be convinced that the practice is legal. “Are they preparing us for a war? What are they thinking about?” asks a citizen when requesting strict anonymity for the delivery of this report.
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The movements of double cab trucks with armed civilians who mobilize in their areas without a legal explanation brings back to the community memories of violent years that many have wanted to forget.
“There was a lot of suffering from the war in the 1980s in these communities, a lot of blood was spilled. Nobody wants to go back to that,” said a peasant woman, who lost one of her six children in that war.
Active paramilitaries in communities
After the social outbreak of April 2018, Ortega fans received weapons from the Police and the Army to attack the rebellious citizens, according to several complaints from opponents. According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the death toll caused by these irregular groups together with the police reached 355.
To date, the regime has refused to investigate the crimes, but its militants have taken it upon themselves with pride. “Those people are still active, they walk around with their weapons as if nothing had happened,” said a humble woman from Santa María de Pantasma, who walks with her six-year-old girl down an unpaved street near her homestead.
“Everyone here knows that the paramilitaries killed many peasants. It is horrible because these people go around killing people they know, brothers from the same town,” denounced a resident of Wiwilí.
Until last year, in these remote areas of the country 52 peasants had been counted assassinated by government sympathizers. The crimes were committed by paramilitaries who act with total impunity and even in coordination with the same Police that became, since 2018, the repressive arm and executor of crimes against humanity ordered by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo against their opponents.
From hitmen to policemen and vice versa
One of the best-known cases in these remote areas is that of the Ortega fanatic marlon martinezwhom they called “Seven Curves”. He was a confessed paramilitary and while he lived he boasted of being responsible for the death of more than a dozen peasants who rose up against Ortega in April.
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The man was feared in the Plandegrama microregion. Many attribute kidnappings, torture and disappearances to him, which in this area have been kept quiet to avoid further repression. Those who saw Martínez remember him in a police uniform, although he was a civilian and other times in a military paint color uniform. Several citizens complained to the police for allowing them the institution’s uniform and weapons, but they turned a deaf ear.
One day, Marlon Martínez was found dead. There was no investigation, nor was there any complaint demanding to clarify the death. There was total silence from the authorities. Many say that he was ambushed by a “friend” because he had gotten out of control, others that the Army itself shot him down after warning the Police that he was carrying out “irregular gang operations.”
Another that was pointed out by the population was david nicaragua, who is the head of the Pantasma Police. According to relatives of a victim, the latter, in complicity with a paramilitary known in the area, killed the young Saúl Gutiérrez. It is said that Gutiérrez was a militant and refused to continue in the ranks of these paramilitary groups.
Carriers fear repressive escalation
A citizen, who has his means of transportation and provides service in these areas, claimed to have seen state workers receiving military training. “I was very afraid, because it is irrefutable proof that the Sandinistas are preparing to increase the repression against the peasants and those who do not collaborate with them,” he denounced.
“They have the weapons and if they ask you to transfer these people, even if you don’t want to, you must do it, otherwise you will be blacklisted and they can kill us,” he warned.
There is fear and silence in the villages of Jinotega. «One appears dead on those roads, who is going to defend you? Just think about what they do with the Church; now with us that we are in the field”, said a resident of El Cuá.
At the time, the former mayoress of Wiwilí Reyna Esmeralda Hernandez He assured that many peasants had been killed by paramilitaries, but that no one denounced them out of fear. He came to speak of an exodus of about ten thousand peasants. “They left their families to protect their lives,” he denounced.
By: United Voices
