After the National Assembly declared a national holiday on May 30 to celebrate Mother’s Day, the relatives of the victims declared that date as “ national mourning day”
The brutal repression of May 30 in Nicaragua left a balance of 19 murdered demonstrators (AFP)
Every May 30, Nicaragua celebrates Mother’s Day. But for four years that date is no longer passed with joy; not even this Monday, which was the first time that Nicaraguans experienced it as a national holiday. That joy and happiness with which this date was lived years ago, been overshadowed since 2018 by the brutal massacre perpetrated by the Daniel Ortega regime during the massive peaceful protests.
That May 30, 2018, the security forces of the dictatorship and paramilitary groups armed by the Sandinista Army killed 19 civilians. Since then, Nicaragua deepened the serious crisis it had been going through, and the regime intensified the persecution and repression against the opposition.
The local news agency Divergentes made a podcast, under the title “May 30: The massacre that Ortega and Murillo try to erase”, in which they recall the acts of violence that day and share the testimonies of relatives of victims.
According to the report, the Sandinista regime intends to “bury any memory of the date”. For this reason, on May 18 the National Assembly, which responds to the dictator, decreed May 30 as a national holiday.
Just as in these years there has been no justice for the victims, in the official discourse there is no allusion to the massacre. But the relatives of those murdered “are reluctant to fall into oblivion.” The Mothers of April Association (AMA), born in the midst of the protests, carried out a countermeasure after the decree of the National Assembly, and declared May 30 as national mourning.
In this context, Divergent maintains that the Ortega regime maintains a Nicaragua divided into two realities: “One that denies the massacre and calls for celebrations, and another that in the midst of pain asks for respect for those killed at the hands of the regime.”
The Mothers of April movement demands justice for those murdered by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua
Candelaria Díaz, Saramelia López and Tamara Morazán< /b>They are relatives of victims of the massacre. Despite the pain, their lives were a true ordeal due to the persecution of the dictatorship. Reason for which they were forced into exile. Although the situation became untenable for them, they continue to demand clarification of all the murders.
“After 2018, Mother’s Day ceased to exist for me” , said Candelaria Díaz, whose son, Carlos Manuel Vázquez, was killed by the regime’s security forces with a shot to the chest.
That May 30, 2018, the 28-year-old, father of two daughters and worker in the free zones, was crossing the Monimbó neighborhood to visit his mother in the city of Masaya. Candelaria said that that afternoon she had heard some shots coming from the street, and after a while they knocked on the door of her house to tell her that her son had been injured.
“No I imagined what I was going to find,” he acknowledged. Arriving at the scene, he found his son shot, on the verge of death. “The ambulance looked for a way to pass, but since all the roadblocks were there, it was difficult for us, and he was losing his senses, so the lifeguards told the person who was driving that the pulse in his hand was not responding.”
< p class=”paragraph”>They arrived at the hospital, and five minutes after being admitted to the emergency room, Carlos Manuel died.
Human rights organizations and journalistic investigations revealed that, for At that time, policemen and irregular groups armed by the regime fired at the demonstrators’ heads, necks and chests. They weren’t deterrent shots, they were shots to kill. Although most of the deaths were recorded in Managua, Masaya was another main focus of the regime’s brutal repression.
The Ortega and Murillo dictatorship intensified the repression against the opposition since the 2018 massacre (REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas)
Saramelia López is another mother demanding justice after the murder of her son Cruz Alberto Obregón López in the city of Estelí, also shot in the chest.
Like Candelaria, he did not have the opportunity to mourn in peace while he lived in Nicaragua. Any commemoration is placated by the regime; Masses cannot be celebrated either, nor can cemeteries be visited because they are besieged by regime shock groups. This led Saramelia to go into exile in the United States.
Tamara Morazán, sister of Jonatan Morazán, said that “it is frustrating” the fact that “Not being able to hold a mass, the fact that they want to erase you as a relative from the memory of your brother, his children”: “It is too cruel.” Jonatan was one of those killed in Managua.
“Here they were murdered and they are not going to return our dead alive. This is irreparable damage. It’s very frustrating, but we still have the strength to continue fighting, we don’t think it will end this way,” warned Tamara.
Four years after the brutal massacre, the Ortega regime Not only does the persecution intensify, but it also continues to deny what happened.
The relatives of the victims cannot perform masses or other tributes due to the siege by the security forces (REUTERS/Maynor Valenzuela)
“Today, ‘Day of National Mourning’, for us mothers and relatives, is a day of deep pain, but also of great indignation for the irreparable damage that the dictatorship has caused us since April 2018, with its bloody repression that has escalated even more after the massacre of May 30, claiming new lives throughout the country”, declared AMA, in a statement made this Monday.
According to the civil association, at least 15 people died in Managua and another two in Estelí on May 30, 2018.
“We have nothing to celebrate , nor assume it as a national holiday, for us it is a day of national mourning, we will not allow them to impose their narrative, for us it is and will continue to be a day of national mourning, the mothers do not give up, they demand justice”, the Mothers of April added to the agency EFE.
According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), at least 355 people They died in the context of the 2018 anti-government demonstrations, of which Ortega has recognized 200.