Miami, Apr 16 (EFE).- The Nicaraguan community in Miami, including exiles and exiles, commemorated this Sunday the fifth anniversary of the outbreak of the 2018 protests, with a memory of the victims of repression and messages in favor of unity and the fight for a “free Nicaragua”.
The events, which came before the anniversary, which falls on April 18, began with a mass in the parish of Santa Agatha, the Nicaraguan church in Miami and continued with a caravan of cars and protesters on foot to Rubén Darío Park. , where various community and exile representatives spoke surrounded by blue and white flags and posters calling for freedom and democracy.
The auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Báez, who has lived in Santa Agatha since he had to leave Nicaragua four years ago for security reasons, called his compatriots for unity and peace during the homily, in which he combined the teachings of the Gospel of this Sunday with clear allusions to Nicaragua.
Interrupted by the applause of the faithful on several occasions, Báez, who did not mention the word Nicaragua although it was obvious which country he was talking about, affirmed that after several years of repression, Nicaraguans remain “divided and confronted” and urged them to “be agents of understanding and concord”.
“Life cannot be a way to impose oneself, humiliate and dominate others”, also said the bishop, whose nationality has been withdrawn by the Nicaraguan authorities.
Báez asked to remember the victims of the repression, but “not out of hatred or a desire for revenge” but to demand justice, defend the ideals that cost them their lives and achieve “a better future for all.”
In April 2018, thousands of Nicaraguans took to the streets to protest controversial social security reforms, which later turned into a demand for Ortega’s resignation after responding with force.
The protests left at least 355 dead according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), although Nicaraguan organizations raise the figure to 684, while Ortega acknowledges that there were “more than 300” and maintains that it was an attempted coup. .
MASS AND POLITICAL RALLY
The auxiliary bishop of Managua then spoke to the journalists who came to Santa Agatha.
Báez pointed out that the protests of April 18, 2018 marked a historic milestone in Nicaragua that should not be forgotten, because, he said, a type of coexistence was created that should become a model for the future.
“There the political colors disappeared, there were no exclusive ideologies, nobody fought with anyone. There we all think of Nicaragua and that is why the spirit of April must remain for the future. Nicaragua will be better and different only if we remain faithful to the spirit that united us all in April 2018”, she stated.
In addition, he reiterated his demand for the “unconditional and immediate freedom” of the bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, a critic of the government of President Daniel Ortega, who since last August 19 has been detained under house arrest.
“I believe that Orlando should not be in jail, because he is innocent,” Báez said.
Questioned about Ortega’s attacks against the Catholic Church and the recent declaration of April 19 as Peace Day in Nicaragua, the auxiliary bishop of Managua said that one must know how to interpret the president’s language, because he does not govern for Nicaragua but for their bases.
“Deep down, when we hear him talk like that, we must think that it is a sign of weakness, of despair. He knows that he is alone in and out of the country,” she added.
Once the religious service was over, a caravan of cars with flags left for Rubén Darío Park, a meeting point for the Central American community of Miami.
“Five years ago we took to the streets because it was our right and we are going to return early, not only because it is our right, but because we are going to conquer freedom,” said Francisco Larios, one of the speakers, who is part of the Free Nicaraguans movement. .
Larios told EFE that the idea pursued by those gathered today is not “to launch ourselves into a guerrilla war, nor to surrender, as they (the government) would like, but rather to organize a democratic movement that in a sustained manner can at some point make the people paralyze the country (…) and remove the dictatorship by force to build a democratic republic”.
Fernando Robles, from the Peasant Movement and one of the 22 exiled and deprived of their liberty by Ortega, who was another speaker, told EFE that in Nicaragua one can no longer “think differently”, it is a crime, but he said he trusted that an act like today’s can soon be held in your country if all those who are against the dictatorship unite.
