This morning the Daniel Ortega regime ordered by Ministerial Agreement the cancellation of the legal status of the Juan Pablo II Catholic University and the Autonomous Christian University of Nicaragua (UCAN). In view of this decision, opponents and student organizations have denounced that this action “curtails the right to education” in Nicaragua.
“We repudiate and denounce the cancellation of the legal status of two private universities, adding to the list of private higher education institutions that suffer the ravages of repression and arbitrary mechanisms of political control of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). This act represents a manifestation of fear and cowardice of Ortega-Murillo regarding an education free of party political influence, without political clientelism and builder of political thought, “denounces the Student and Youth Unit.
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They add that this situation demonstrates a clear intention of the regime “to strike down all spaces that escape the control of the National Council of Universities (CNU), as the main educational deterioration of the country.”
For his part, the opponent Félix Maradiaga denounced that “again the Ortega regime curtails the right to education with the cancellation and confiscation of more universities, another example of its authoritarianism and fear of a people that rejects it. We make a loud and clear call to the international community to condemn this act.”
The Juan Pablo II University was directed by Father Ramiro Tijerino, a priest from Matagalpa who was exiled to the United States by the Nicaraguan regime on February 9, along with 221 political prisoners. The priest spent several months detained in “El Chipote” since he was captured by the Police on August 19, 2021.
Currently, the regime’s relationship with the Catholic Church was fractured when the bishops of the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference (CEN) mediated a failed National Dialogue in 2018. Ortega accused the bishops of “coup plotters” because they “read the primer” to him, a road map that proposed the resignation of the Sandinista caudillo and the holding of new presidential elections as a way out of the socio-political crisis.
The Student Unit stressed that in this situation, “we will continue to demonstrate these types of circumstances that violate the human rights and political and civil liberties of the people of Nicaragua.”
