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"All I thought was that we were going to die, I imagined I would die in a church," says Valeska Sandoval, a 20-year-old student who was Friday night at the university. Inside the Church Jesus of Divine Mercy, after being expelled with bullets from the northern barricade of Arlen Siu, who was guarding the Rubén Darío campus of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN- Managua)
Sandoval was inside the church with a group of at least 200 students, priests and journalists, surrounded by armed civilians affiliated with the government who were firing bullets. The attack began at UNAN at noon Friday and stopped around 6 am Saturday.
Students entrenched in the Church of Divine Mercy arrive at Cathedral of Managua
"We knew that they could take us out of college, but we could not imagine the magnitude of this attack, "says Jonathan Lopez, one of the spokespersons of UNAN-Managua, who points out that the walls of 39 church, neighboring lampposts and even the pastoral house were pierced with bullets. Until Saturday afternoon, the environs of the parish continued to be surrounded by paragliders
"We were resigned," says Sandoval. "There was euphoria, fear and a bit of hope," he says after leaving the church with all his companions, adding that he does not regret d & rsquo; To have taken the university campus because his fight "is fair and sincere".
The Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference issued a message on Saturday, stating that "any act of sacrilegious profanation against the Church is condemned, whether in his consecrated persons or in his temples."
"In the same way aggression is reprehensible against national and international journalists, human rights defenders and members of civil society," the Catholic bishops said in their pastoral message: "These In recent days, the repression and violence of pro-government paramilitaries have intensified the people who protest civically. "
Fourteen wounded
Valeska Sandoval has been entrenched in UNAN-Managua since 7 May, day when a group of students took the campus demanding restructuring of the National Union of Nicaraguan Students (UNEN), a student leadership accused of being the political branch of the National Front party of Sandinista liberation (FSLN) and to be involved in the crackdown on anti-government protesters since April
For 68 days students had taken the campus, until Friday at noon were attacked by bullets by hooded groups, backed by the National Police, who in the past had killed four students entrenched there.
More blood flows to Monimbó and UNAN
According to the version of the young people who were in the barricades, attacks began in the area of ?? 39, Rotunda University. There, several were wounded by bullets; They withdrew to the barricade Arlen Siu where they resisted for four hours, defending themselves with mortars and Molotov badtails, and then withdrew to the evacuation point they had established: the DM (Jesus of Divine Mercy) Church) on the southeast side of the campus.
"We did not get anything with food we had in store, clothes, nothing, we all ran with bullets behind us," says Ulises Lagos, 21, who was also on the barricades near the roundabout where the attacks began.
By five o'clock in the afternoon, most of the students had been sheltering in the parish, Attacks were concentrated in the temple.There were also barricades and patrols of the National Police, blocking the pbadage to human rights organizations and priests trying to stop the violence.
At 10 pm, the National Dialogue's Verification and Security Commission (CVS) ambulances entered the church and took out several wounded and the American journalist Joshua Partlow.Cr. a total of 14 wounded on were transferred to hospitals on Friday night.
"We were encircled"
After the CVS's retirement, the attacks resumed. "The shooting came from the side of El Zócalo, La Pampa and the Claro store near Plaza Portas.We were surrounded," explains Sandoval.
The IACHR urges the international community to require Nicaragua to guarantee human rights
While the majority of young people are sheltering in the church, a group of twenty young people have come out to defend them Barricades. "They caught us, they killed us," says a 17-year-old who prefers anonymity. "They definitely wanted to exterminate the fight because we had already kicked out UNAN. ", he adds
According to Lagos, the police were so close that they have managed to shout "bastards, they will die".
"They even told us to sell. We told them how much they paid for killing students, "he recalls. From time to time, students would launch a mortar and "one or two (shots) of a homemade weapon," says Lagos.
For Sandoval, the attacks in the early hours of the morning were the most emotionally suffocating: "The darkness and inability to react against the heavy weaponry with which they were attacked made them vulnerable . The attacks have never stopped. They have always had bullets, "says Lagos, who was studying until three months ago at the Polytechnic University (Upoli).
On the barricade where Lagos was hiding, two young people died between 5 and 6 am Gerald Vásquez, 20, and Francisco Flores, 22, both with head shots.
Bishops arrive
Finally, at 6 o'clock in the morning, the attacks cease and an hour later, Cardinal Leopoldo José Brenes and the Apostolic Nuncio, Stanislaw Waldemar Sommertag, moved to the parish of Jesus of Divine Mercy to negotiate the release of the students.
"We were happy when they were said that the church was coming, but we were suspicious. Many said, "They will kill us anyway, they will also kill the parents," remembers Lagos, who thought that they could shoot them in the same bus that they had taken to them. # 39; church.
The European Union asks the Government of Nicaragua for concrete actions to stop the violence
"Our joy was when we arrived in the minibus, all along we singing the national anthem, For a corner of paradise, Long live the students and Solo I ask God, "recalls Sandoval
At ten o'clock in the morning, the student caravan, driving by the vehicles of the ecclesiastical authorities, arrived at the Metropolitan Cathedral, where she was waiting for them. their parents, journalists and human rights defenders.
"Yes, we can!" shouted the youth of the three buses on which they had been transferred. Many were crying, waving Nicaraguan flags and celebrating being awakened from an attack that lasted about 18 hours.
Respect for Human Rights
The Apostolic Nuncio in Nicaragua described as "unfortunate" the situation that the students of UNAN-Managua. "We have dead people and it hurts a lot," said the bishop, adding that his voice will always be "for the respect of human rights".
Two students killed during a UNAN attack
Denisse Cook, coordinator of the Special Follow-up Mechanism for Nicaragua (Meseni) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights The man (IACHR) said that the government authorities were using disproportionate force, and there is a legitimate right to protest that must be confronted with state means, but by no means violence.
Cook noted that since the Meseni has been called for the need to clarify the provenance of the "heavily armed masked forces" who operate with impunity in the country.
The head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, María Luisa Bascur, said that agency for any retaliation against students badaulted. "We will work with all parties to see what conditions will be maintained at Over time, "he said.
UNAN-Managua students released Saturday expressed concern about what might happen to them in the future., there is a history of illegal detentions and persecution of demonstrators. "We know that we will be hunted like animals, we are afraid of what could happen to us," says a student.
They persecute the wounded of the UNAN
Orlando Barrios and José Isaac Espinoza
the students entrenched at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua), the police began a hunt since Friday night when they took one of the wounded from a hospital and they transferred to the Directorate of Legal Aid (DAJ), better known as El Chipote Prison
However, on Saturday morning, an altercation between citizens and paratroopers Police (armed civilians) led to the escape of two detainees who were on board a patrol. the DAJ.
UNAN students accuse the president of allowing an attack
Carla Sequeira, director of the Standing Commission on Human Rights (CPDH), said the paramilitaries were carrying four detainees in the tank of the truck, to whom they were attacking
"The relatives of other detainees in El Chipote began to complaining and a tumult broke out.And suddenly, one of the young people jumped off the truck, taking away his partner because they were chained (with handcuffs), "said Sequeira.
Some witnesses said that one of the officers had tried to shoot at one of the detainees. stayed in the bathtub, but the gun jammed and could not fire. Then another parapolice took two shots.
"At that moment we ran to find a shelter and other policemen threatened us that if they did not capture the fugitives, they would come and get us". night, no information was obtained on the fate of the two young people who escaped.
Alexandro Álvarez of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) visited El Chipote to check what happened to the police and immediately inform his superiors.
His finger was amputated
Arlen López reported that his brother Kevin Javier Alvarado, 25, entrenched in UNAN-Managua, was shot in the middle finger of his right hand and that the police he transferred to the military hospital. Then he was taken to the hospital Fernando Vélez Paiz, where he entered without his finger and had an operation scheduled to join his index finger and his ring finger
"A hospital doctor Velez Paiz m & Said that my brother had left the hospital, document with fingerprint, he came to pick him up with everything and gabacha.I came to El Chipote and they told me that He was detained here, "said the sister of the wounded youth.
Police and armed civilians attack the dam of San Pedro de Lóvago and Santo Tomás
Student movement removed from UNAN-Managua sued authorities for their physical integrity
[19659002] "Police and paramilitaries kidnap comrades who have decided to return home, we ask that our integrity and our freedom are respected, "said the young people from reading a statement yesterday afternoon
. In UNAN-Managua, they recalled that "the directive (of this group) would initiate the negotiation process to leave the premises and sent a letter to the Episcopal Conference.
Arrest of son of a historian
Héctor Arellano, 35 years old, industrial engineer, holds a master's degree in business administration and son of the renowned historian Jorge Eduardo Arellano, secretary of the Academy of Geography and D & # 39; 39, history and member Arellano reports that his son works at the Compañía Cervecera de Nicaragua and that he just arrived from the World Cup in Russia, where he stayed 15 days.
"My son was summoned to his country. work, he came to the appointment (at the DAJ) at 8 o'clock on Thursday morning and was arrested. He has already finished 48 hours and has not been treated harshly, "said the historian, who received solidarity support.
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