Nicaragua: Opponents Commemorate the Fourth Anniversary of Protests Against the Government

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(CNN Spanish) --

In Nicaragua, the opposition Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy reiterated on Monday its demands for "justice for the victims, freedom and democracy for the people," on April 18 four years since the beginning of the protests against the government of Daniel Ortega.

The protests began after the government announced a project to reform the pension system.

And they persisted despite the fact that the pension proposal was withdrawn, to become demands for changes in the political system and recovery of democratic institutions.

The opposition coalition is made up of academics, student leaders, farmers and businessmen, and represented civil society in two attempts at dialogue with the Ortega government in 2018 and 2019. Currently, several of its leaders are detained in the Directorate of Assistance Judicial and were sentenced to between 8 and 13 years in prison for alleged crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity, convictions that they and their lawyers reject.

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In its statement, the Civic Alliance reiterated its demands for the release of all political prisoners, the cessation of all forms of repression, the revocation of all laws that restrict the fundamental rights of Nicaraguans, the return of international human rights organizations rights and the holding of free elections, "previous electoral reforms that allow the transition towards a Nicaragua with justice and democracy".

For its part, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) denounced on April 13 through its social networks an increase in "repression" against Nicaraguans before the day of commemoration of the April protests.

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"We have known several situations that violate human rights: raids, arbitrary arrests, harassment and threats that show the strategy of terror and anxiety imposed by the Ortega Murillo regime four years after the social rebellion," Cenidh denounced.

President Ortega has pointed out on several occasions that in 2018 there was an attempted coup financed from abroad.

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The Nicaraguan government has not responded to these statements, but the vice president and government spokesperson, Rosario Murillo, did in a call with official media on April 11.

Referring to these commemorations, Murillo said: "The 18th, the 19th, all that week celebrating the victories of peace, the victories over evil! There those who remember those days with a bad heart... There those who do not recognize the role they played in the destruction and evil. There those!".

Among the various estimates on the balance of the anti-government protests that began in April 2018, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported that only until June of that year the repressive action of the State had left at least 212 dead, 1,337 injured and 507 people. prisoners registered, as well as hundreds at risk after being victims of attacks, harassment, threats and other forms of intimidation.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights calculated, according to an August 2018 report, that there were more than 300 deaths and 2,000 injuries.

The government recognizes 200 fatalities including policemen.

Nicaraguan exiles in Miami and Costa Rica commemorate the April 2018 protests

Government opponents, residents of South Florida, United States, held a sit-in this Sunday in Rubén Darío Park to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the April 2018 protests and demand the release of more than 180 detained opponents, according to the latest count of organizations of relatives of detainees.

Relatives of victims, released opponents held a virtual conference this Monday from San José, Costa Rica, in which they announced sit-ins, and cultural and religious activities both in that country and in Europe.

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