Nicaragua commemorates Father’s Day this June 23. And on this occasion different civic organizations have remembered and paid tribute to those Nicaraguan men who, in the midst of the repression of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, continue their fight to demand justice and freedom for their families, especially for their children.
From exile, Carlos Pavon remember that fateful April 19, 2018, the day the repressive forces of Ortega murdered his son, Richard Eduardo Pavón Bermúdez. Around 6:30 at night, the young man was about 30 meters from the Managua City Hall when multiple gunshot wounds pierced his chest, arm, face and neck, causing his death.
Although six years have passed since the murder of his son, Pavón assured that “since his loss, nothing has been the same again.” «It still hurts. It is something that will never be overcome and we will not stop asking for justice for those who took his life when he was only 17 years old,” he said in an interview conducted by the organization. Voices In Freedom, in May of last year.
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Like dozens of Nicaraguans, Pavón applied to the humanitarian parole program to migrate to the United States. With sadness, the father of the family relates that “this loss of our son is quite unfortunate. It has affected me, my wife and my other daughters a lot, because Richard was a well-behaved young man, a good brother, a good son, he liked to make friends, he liked to play with his sisters, he was very dynamic and loved.
The father expressed that young Richard left “a legacy of love to the Nicaraguan people.” «He saw that his friends and that others he did not know were in a fair fight; and he decided to be part of it. “No one sent him, he went alone, he felt that his country was calling him, his homeland needed him and you see, his love for the homeland was so great that he offered his own life for Nicaragua,” he stated. he.
Since Richard Pavón’s death, his family has been besieged and persecuted. They have defended the action of his son and it has been seen as a crime for them to demand justice. Every birthday; on October 29, each anniversary of his death; on April 19, they have been harassed and have not been able to go to the cemetery and bring them flowers because police and paramilitaries “watch them all the time.”
In the United States, Pavón began working to help his wife and two daughters, but “he will always maintain resistance and continue demanding justice for his son.” “In five years we have seen nothing, there are no investigations, there is nothing, and the fallen young people deserve justice and not a repetition of everything that has happened,” he said.
The young man in the blue and white hat
During the civic protests of 2018, the young Edwin Carcache Dávila He stood out as a student leader committed to the fight against the Ortega regime. However, in September of that year, the activist was arrested by the regime and charged with terrorism and other charges related to his participation in the protests.
His arrest was a hard blow for the student movement, his family and his father, Edwin Carcache Bello. During his imprisonment, the student leader suffered harsh conditions and was subjected to torture and inhumane conditions. International pressure and negotiations between the dictatorship and the opposition resulted in his release in June 2019, along with other political prisoners.
Although before 2018 it was a sandinista sympathizer, Carcache Bello “left” the red and black flag after the attacks against Carcache Dávila. Since the arrest of his son, the Nicaraguan has been at the forefront of the fight for the release of all political prisoners in Nicaragua. Like other opponents, he suffered persecution and harassment for his activism, but his voice continues unabated.
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Other cases of attacks against parents have been the young Arturo Gómez García, who died on June 23, 2018, in Villa Austria, Managua. Later, 11 members of his family had to leave Nicaragua due to threats from parastatal groups.
That same day, a 14-month-old baby was murdered by a gunshot to the head by parastatal groups in the Américas Uno neighborhood of Managua. Nelson Lorio and Karina Navarrete, The victim’s parents reported the case to the media and national and international organizations.
After days of harassment and despite the fact that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures in favor of Nelson Lorío, he was detained in April 2021. After his release, he was forced to leave Nicaragua with his family to safeguard her physical integrity, without receiving justice for the crime committed against her baby.
Crimes against parents
He Human Rights Collective Nicaragua Never Again considers Nicaraguan parents as “important pieces in the family nucleus” and “recognizes the work of thousands of them in defending justice and memory for their relatives murdered in the framework of the protests that began in April 2018 in Nicaragua” .
“Thousands of Nicaraguan parents have been arrested, criminalized, imprisoned, tortured, exiled, forcibly displaced and their property confiscated, but they have continued to denounce the human rights abuses that are committed daily in Nicaragua,” says the humanitarian organization, in a report. published this Sunday, June 23.
Likewise, the organization indicated that the Ortega dictatorship “has separated thousands of families by exiling or leaving in de facto statelessness hundreds of Nicaraguans who cannot reunite with their sons, daughters or wives, with their mothers and fathers” like the case of the 222 and 94 people exiled and denationalized, in February 2023.
The Collective reiterated that “all the parents of murdered sons and daughters and all the husbands or partners of murdered women, cry out daily for justice for their loved ones who, after six years, continue to go unpunished. “This Collective has the firm conviction to continue denouncing these abuses and crimes committed against Nicaraguans.”
On Nicaraguan Father’s Day, the Collective highlighted the importance of fathers “in caring for the family, their role in eradicating sexist violence, their role in making a society more fair, equitable and open to diversity and their permanent work in denouncing human rights violations in Nicaragua, because a people without memory is a people that will once again be victims of repressive governments and abusers of human rights.
