Mexico City. The Jesuit Central American University of Nicaragua announced on Wednesday the confiscation of all its real estate and assets by the government of Daniel Ortega for “unfounded allegations” that the university “functioned as a center of terrorism.”
In a statement addressed to the university community, the UCA indicated that on Tuesday it received a judicial document in which it was notified “the seizure of real estate, furniture, money in national or foreign currency” from bank accounts that were “immobilized”, as well as “financial products in national or foreign currency.”
The judicial document ordered that the seizure be “in favor of the State of Nicaragua,” added the statement from the UCA, considered the most important and prestigious private university in the country. In turn, it reported the suspension of “all academic and administrative activities.” from the university “until it is possible to resume them.”
The Nicaraguan government has not yet confirmed the measure, which takes place in the midst of an attack against the Catholic Church after the closure of various religious organizations and media outlets and the imprisonment of the Bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, locked up in a prison. from Managua since February after refusing to be deported to the United States along with 222 other released opponents.
Approximately eight thousand students study at the UCA, out of the total of 200 thousand university students that exist in Nicaragua, according to organizations in the sector.
Founded in 1960 by the Society of Jesus, 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. momentarily in its facilities.
In their statement, the university authorities said that the government argues that the university “functioned as a center of terrorism, organizing criminal groups” and clarified that these are “unfounded accusations.”
Ortega crushed the 2018 social rebellion with heavily armed police and paramilitary forces and accused opposition and student leaders, as well as bishops, of participating in a failed coup to overthrow him.
Amnesty International protested through a tweet by Erika Guevara Rosas, who expressed her solidarity at what she described as “another attack on human rights in Nicaragua.”
“With this confiscation, Ortega puts a tombstone for free thought in Nicaragua,” said lawyer María Asunción Moreno, who was a professor at the UCA for more than two decades until her exile in 2021.
The student leader Lesther Alemán, a former student of the UCA and who faced Ortega in the first national dialogue in 2018, described the Sandinista rulers as “insane” for having closed “an extremely important academic center.”
In a statement, six university organizations rejected the measure, considering it “an attempt to restrict university autonomy” and part of “a strategy to quell resistance and silence critical voices.”
