Youth organizations demanded the restoration of the rights of students expelled from public universities for political reasons, justice for the more than 300 people murdered in the context of the 2018 social protests, and freedom for the more than 190 political prisoners held by the regime. Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
The demands were made on the occasion of the National Day of the Nicaraguan Student, the date on which the student struggle of July 23, 1959, when four university students were assassinated by the Somocista dictatorship, is commemorated in Nicaragua.
The Nicaraguan University Alliance (AUN), the UNA Movement, the Nicaraguan Youth and Students Alliance (AJEN) and the ME19A, in a joint statement, recalled that the struggle of university students for freedom, justice and democracy, after 63 years after the Somocista massacre, “is still in force” under the new dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
In addition, they denounced that the Ortega Murillo regime keeps “eight university students imprisoned for political reasons in the different prison systems of the country, among them: Lesther Alemán, Max Jerez, Samantha Jirón, John Cena and Kevin Solís.”
The groups lamented thekidnapping of public universities and the instrumentalization of public education centers for the benefit of a political party and its particular interests.”
In this context, they recalled that they continue to demand “academic freedom and the independence of student movements.”
The University Coordinator for Democracy and Justice (CUDJ) also issued a statement regarding Student Day, denouncing the murder of more than 40 students by the Ortega-Murillo regime during the citizen protests that began in April 2018.
The group stressed that it is urgent to departidize and eliminate political propaganda from universities; promote a reform to “Law 89 of Higher Education Institutions” to consolidate university autonomy; revoke all resolutions expelling students who participated in the protests; and call for new free and transparent elections for student authorities, allowing the participation of emerging movements.
The CUDJ also held a forum, “dedicated to exiled students, expelled students, political prisoners and those killed by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship,” in San José, Costa Rica, in which they exposed the serious human rights violations that in the last four years have been committed against the university students who participated in the citizen protests of 2018.
They denounce before the IACHR
The Inter-American Legal Assistance Center for Human Rights (Calidh), on July 23, filed the complaint “Expelled Students” against the State of Nicaragua, before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The complaint points to the harassment, persecution, violation of the right to education and forced migration suffered by student leaders Yasuri Potoy, Franklin Rojas, Mayling Cortez and Katherine Ramírez.
The Center explained that the four university students were injured to their right to education and that three of these were “suddenly expelled from their university careers by UNAN-Managua and their academic records were erased without prior disciplinary proceedings.”
The entity asked the IACHR to condemn the actions of the Nicaraguan State and declare that it “has violated its duty not to legislate or make decisions against human rights, specifically because after their expulsion from UNAN-Managua, the student leaders followed their careers at a university whose legal personality was cancelled, thus violating once again their right to education.”
In addition, he warned that he will request the international organization that the victims be fully compensated for the human rights violations they suffered. The Calidh hopes that this complaint, after processing before the IACHR, reaches the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court).
