2023-04-16 23:44:40
On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the April Rebellion, Nicaraguans from the diaspora and exile held masses, fairs, sit-ins and marches in Spain, the United States, Costa Rica, Canada and other countries to continue denouncing human rights violations in Nicaragua, demand justice, reparation and non-repetition.
The largest concentration took place this Sunday in Miami, Florida, United States, where the Nicaraguan community first marched along the main tourist routes of the city and then held a second demonstration from the temple of Santa Ágatha —which currently houses the auxiliary bishop of Managua , Silvio José Báez— to Rubén Darío Park.
The first demonstration held in Miami, called the march of the crosses, had a route of approximately four kilometers. Political activists, released prisoners, university students and human rights defenders carried wooden crosses and waved the Nicaraguan flag to denounce the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
Before the second demonstration in Miami, Nicaraguans participated in the Sunday mass at the Santa Ágatha temple officiated by Monsignor Báez, who remembered the 355 Nicaraguans murdered during the 2018 protests and offered a message of hope for their families and all the victims of the regime.
“Today we remember them (the victims) not to hate and ask for revenge, nor to reproduce in ourselves the criminal mechanisms of the oppressor. We remember the victims to pray for them and their families, so as not to repeat the injustices of the past and honor their memory by demanding justice and committing ourselves to the ideal for which they offered their lives”, the Carmelite bishop said during his homily.
Báez, who has been in exile since 2019 at the request of Pope Francis, also invited those attending the mass to work for unity. “After painful years of repression, injustice and death, we remain divided and at odds. The polarization is very great, it seems that we are doomed to never understand or unite. There is no social peace without inner peace in people, ”he stressed.
He also reflected on the wounds that the regime has inflicted on the Nicaraguan people: “The peoples subjected, imprisoned and exiled, deprived of their liberties and disrespected in their human rights are peoples with bleeding wounds. Those wounds will resurrect, like those of Jesus. To believe in the risen Lord is to live with the certainty that the wounds of the people are not forever,” he added.
Báez remembers the “spirit” of April
In subsequent statements to the press, 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,” said the bishop.
He reiterated his demand for the “unconditional and immediate freedom” of the bishop of the Matagalpa diocese, Rolando Álvarez, a critic of the Ortega government who is in La Modelo prison.
“I believe that Rolando should not be in jail, because he is innocent,” said Báez.
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 inside and outside the country,” he added.
Protests in different parts
At the end of the religious celebration, the assistants marched towards the Rubén Darío park in Miami raising crosses, the Nicaraguan flag and the photograph of the bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, sentenced by the regime to 26 years in prison for allegedly conspiracy crimes.
Another group of Nicaraguans in Washington DC, United States, demonstrated in Freedom Plaza, a meeting place for political protests and rallies in that country. There they shouted slogans and denounced the violations of the human rights of Nicaraguans.
In Costa Rica, a group of Nicaraguan women held the Pinolera de Abril Fair. At the event, they exhibited photographs of women during the 2018 protests, the failed national dialogue and of the political prisoners of the Nicaraguan regime.
In Spain, the Nicaraguan community demonstrated on Saturday night. A group of compatriots gathered in the Plaza de España, in Zaragoza, where they projected short videos on the sociopolitical situation in Nicaragua and demanded justice and freedom for the more than forty political prisoners of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
Finally, a group of Nicaraguans in Toronto, Canada, held a sit-in to demand the human rights violations committed by the Ortega regime and demand freedom for political prisoners.
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