The decision of the Daniel Ortega regime to cancel the legal status of the Hispano-American University (Uhispam), added to the lack of public explanations of said alma mater, keeps more than 3,000 students from Masaya, Carazo, Granada, Rivas and Managua in distress .
Hundreds of university students and parents packed the Uhispam headquarters on December 15, demanding “explanations” and “solutions” from the authorities of that university, which has not publicly issued a statement.
While they made long lines or were piled up at the main gates of the Uhispam headquarters, parents and students shouted: “show your face”, “we want information”, “give explanations” and “let us in”.
CONFIDENTIAL spoke with a student, who preferred not to give her name or the degree she was studying for fear of reprisals, who explained that, after queuing for more than two hours at the Uhispam Rivas headquarters, the authorities of the university told her that they will give them their transcripts.
“I went to demand explanations that obviously they could not give, but they told me that they will give us the transcripts, they pointed me out on a list and told me that they would notify me, they did not tell me when they are going to deliver it,” he said.
He added that he had knowledge, by confirmation of final year students, that after the cancellation of legal status they were informed, via WhatsApp message, that the graduation ceremony was canceled.
The university student regretted the closure of Uhispam, pointing out that the government authorities “had to find a solution” to avoid practically leaving thousands of students on the street, among these young people who were already in the last year of their careers or who were days away. to celebrate their graduation.
The University Coordinator for Democracy and Justice (CUDJ) indicated to CONFIDENTIAL who had conversations with parents of students from the different Uhispam campuses, who told them that their main concern is that the grade certificates are not delivered, because with those documents they could save all the time and money invested in the their children’s studies, enrolling them in other universities to complete their careers.
“The students from the day they found out about the cancellation of the legal status of Uhispam, ordered by the regime, began to appear at the university headquarters and found gates closed, no one gave them answers, they tried to call and nothing, ”said one of the CUDJ members.
He added that many of those who spoke with the organization told them that there is “a lot of anxiety” because “those in the last year had already paid the title, the costs of the ceremony and now they do not know if they will actually be awarded a title, or if this it will be recognized at the time of registering it, if they will give them the notes, the concern is great because they have not given them clear information ”.
In reports from the virtual platform Nicaragua Actual, from the headquarters of Uhispam Jinotepe, in Carazo, and Masaya, students expressed that the authorities of that house of studies informed them that they will deliver the certificates of grades and university degrees.
“They tell us that the titles will be valid because they will have the support of the CNU, that the titles will be delivered tomorrow (December 16) at 1:00 in the afternoon and that we have to register them”, indicated one of the students.
CONFIDENTIAL He tried to communicate with the Uhispam authorities, through the numbers posted on the website, but our calls were not answered. In addition, Leonardo Torres, rector general of said alma mater, was called and sent messages, but until the publication of this report, he had not responded to our calls and messages.
Regime attacks its “most faithful” relatives
The Universidad Hispanoamericana as well as the Nicaraguan Council Association of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (Conimipyme), whose legal status was also canceled on December 13, are linked to businessman Leonardo Torres, recognized as a loyal militant of the Sandinista Front, therefore the closure ordered by the Legislature is read as a “coup” delivered by the party.
The political analyst Eliseo Núñez, through his social networks, indicated that “lor Leonardo Torres is the tip of the iceberg”, ensuring that it is part of a “cleaning operation” that Vice President Rosario Murillo has started “in view of her appointment as successor to Daniel Ortega.”
He stressed that this “public movement” “coincidentally” “is against one of the most loyal to Bayardo Arce”, advisor for economic affairs and interlocutor of the regime with the private sector, until its break in April 2018, when Ortega unleashed a hunt against anyone who dared to protest.
Arce is one of the few commanders of the Revolution – allies of the regime – who has publicly dared to criticize Ortega’s actions. In April 2018, in an interview with Univisión, he admitted that Ortega “made a mistake” when announcing the Social Security reforms, which sparked the protests. However, in December 2020, the advisor reappeared publicly, announcing offering negotiations with the business sector and justifying the inhibition of opponents.
Torres, for his part, has been one of the businessmen who, in the context of the socio-political crisis, has dedicated himself to defending the actions of the regime, minimizing the economic and social impact of the actions it executes.
He is also one of the businessmen who has been associated with non-transparent projects linked to the Ortega-Murillo regime. An investigation of CONFIDENTIAL, released in 2013, revealed that Torres was involved in the case of the constructor Viviendas Económica de Nicaragua (Vienicsa), linked to Tecnosa, a company that is linked to Francisco López, treasurer of the Sandinista Front, who was sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom in 2018 and 2021, respectively.
The investigation showed that Torres, as a director of the Social Security Institute (INSS), participated in a meeting in 2008 in which a financing of 2.5 million dollars was approved for a housing project that supposedly would be executed in Chinandega, although until the publication of the report of CONFIDENTIAL, in 2013, not a single house had been built.
