We invite you to a series of events on the current crisis in Nicaragua, organised by SOS Nicaragua as part of a brief speaking tour by a delegation of Nicaraguan
activists, who have been witnesses to the unfolding crisis.
A small delegation of activists are visiting during this and next week from Nicaragua, to share their experience as witnesses of the crisis of state violence that
the country is suffering. The young women who are part of the delegation are:
• Madelaine Caracas is a young feminist environmentalist and university activist. She is part of one of the student organisations that have arisen
in the context of the recent civic protests - University Coordinating body for Democracy and Justice (CUDJ). It is made up of students from the country’s main public and private universities.
• Jessica Cisneros is a young activist working on the inclusion and citizen participation of young people from different social sectors in Nicaragua. She is a founder of the grassroots
youth organization Civic Youth Movement (MCJ), whose aim is to promote social change and critical citizenship from diverse perspectives. Individual members of the organisation have been participating actively in the recent protests.
• Yerling Aguilera is a young sociologist, teacher and social researcher at two universities – the UPOLI (Polytechinic University) and the UCA (Central American University). Her areas
of speciality involve gender themes and the study of memory in relation to Nicaragua’s Sandinista Popular Revolution. She is a women’s rights and left wing activist and has supported the current protest movements in different ways.
London: Friday 6th July, 6.30-8pm at the Human Rights Action Centre, Amnesty
International, 25 New Inn Yard, EC2A 3EA London.
Brighton: Sunday 8th July, 5.30-7pm at ONCA Gallery,14 Saint George's
Place, BN1 4GB Brighton.
Edinburgh: Tuesday 10th July, 5pm at University of Edinburgh, Room 1.20, Dugald
Stewart Building, 3 Charles Street, EH8 9AD Edinburgh.
Sheffield: Tuesday 10th July, 7-9pm at Sheffield Quaker Meeting House, 10 St James Street, S1 2EW Sheffield.
Since the 18th of April 2018 over two hundred people have been killed in Nicaragua as a result of the violent repression of protests by the government. To this day, the violence and threat
of more continues under the rule of the government lead by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, who have at various times justified the violent levels of repression as 'necessary' and as 'the work of God's faith'. Amnesty International's recent research
Nicaragua: Shoot
to Kill captures information of many cases that illustrate the levels of state repression that the Nicaraguan government has engaged with in the last few months.
Protests started in Nicaragua this year over questionable circumstances surrounding the burning down of a nature reserve called Indio Maíz, that favoured large scale land grabs. The government
failed to move to save thousands of acres of land. Then social security reforms were introduced by the Ortega-Murillo regime, that were to place greater financial burden on pensioners and the poorest among the population of Nicaragua to pay for healthcare.
The response to peaceful protests against these reforms was to send armed forces to repress the population.
In Managua, among other places, protesters were fired at with live bullets by the national police force. Pro government paramilitaries began attacks on the population, killing, kidnapping and wounding people with total impunity across the country. Among the
dead, many were students and young people below the age of 18.
Background context
The Ortega government is a far cry from the Sandinistas who once overthrew the Somoza dictatorship. After losing power in 1990, the FSLN gradually became controlled by Daniel Ortega, his wife Rosario Murillo, and his family. His stay in the leadership of the
party has been full of controversy: in 1998, Ortega was accused of sexually abusing his step daughter, a claim that never ended up with any convictions. This was partly thanks to a pact with the ultra right-wing government of Arnoldo Aleman, with whom the
state was divided into control by their two parties, and partly thanks to the denial of any abuse by Rosario Murillo, who turned her back on her own daughter and continued to be central to Ortega's political career. Daniel Ortega returned to power as leader
of the FSLN in 2006 by allying with conservative religious groups, from fundamentalist evangelicals to the Catholic church, gaining their support by promising to fully ban abortion. Once in power, all employees of the state were required to attend Ortega's
party events and marches. Sandinistas in the left opposition now name this political project as Orteguismo, a shadow of the promises of equality and socialism that the Sandinistas once fought for.
These events are being organised by a group of people with connections, friends and family in Nicaragua, in solidarity with loved ones living under threat, and
with Nicaraguans across the country and the world risking their lives in resistance. Whilst media attention in the U.K has not been turned to Nicaragua it is important that we spread the truth of what is happening as international witness and solidarity is
vital at this point of crisis.
