The government portal El 19 Digital published a resolution of the National Council of Universities (CNU), the higher education regulatory body, which ordered in a session on Thursday to “cancel the operating authorization” of the UCA.
The CNU pointed out that in order to “guarantee the educational continuity” of UCA students (some 8,000 according to figures from student organizations), “it approved the creation of the Casimiro Sotelo Montenegro National University” which will operate in that same place.
Casimiro Sotelo was a guerrilla member of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) who was assassinated by a Somocista guard colonel in 1967. He was 24 years old and was fighting against the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, overthrown by the 1979 revolution.
The educational entity also appointed the authorities of the new university, including Alejandro Enrique Genet as rector, Luz Marina Ortiz Narváez, vice rector, and Moisés Palacios, general secretary, the statement said.
The authorities of the university announced on Wednesday the confiscation of all its real estate and assets by the government of Daniel Ortega, which accused them of having functioned “as a center of terrorism.”
The UCA was one of the focuses of the student protests that broke out in April 2018 and on more than one occasion opened its doors to allow civilian protesters fleeing from police bullets to take refuge in its facilities.
Ortega crushed the 2018 social rebellion with heavily armed police and paramilitary forces, accusing opposition and student leaders, as well as Catholic bishops, of participating in a failed coup to overthrow him.
Since December 2021, at least 26 universities have been closed and their assets were seized by order of the Sandinista government with a similar procedure. Seven of them foreigners.
The UCA received a legal document on Tuesday in which it was notified of “the seizure of real estate, personal property, money in national or foreign currency” from bank accounts that were “immobilized”, as well as “financial products in national or foreign currency”. .
The closure of the Jesuit university, the first private university founded in Central America in 1960, was condemned by six university organizations that described it as “an attempt to restrict university autonomy” and part of “a strategy to quell resistance and silence the voices critics”.
“It will always be the UCA even if they want to give it another name. That space keeps memory and will continue to be a symbol of what they will not be able to confiscate: our minds, our experiences, our stories and our education,” said student leader Madelaine Caracas, exiled since 2019 after receiving government threats.
Among the reactions of rejection, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, indicated Thursday in a statement that he “follows with concern” the situation in the Central American country, especially “the increase in tensions between the Nicaraguan government and the Catholic Church ”.
“A State party that closes a university or other educational institution for reasons such as national security or the preservation of public order, has the burden of justifying such a serious measure” in relation to each of the elements identified in article 4 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, warned Guterres.
The closure and confiscation of the university occurs in the midst of an attack against the Catholic Church, after the closure of several religious organizations and media outlets and the imprisonment of the Bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, locked up in a Managua prison since February after refusing to to be deported to the United States along with 222 other released opponents.
In a statement, the Central American Province of the Society of Jesus rejected the serious accusations against the UCA as “totally false and unfounded” and highlighted its “prestigious teaching and research work” for more than half a century of existence.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
