Nicaragua, students besieged by paramilitaries. Bishops save them

The white walls of the Church of Divine Mercy are marked by bullets. Even the big picture of Jesus was hurt. For twelve hours, the parish in front of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (19459010) was under the fire of the paramilitary groups, the "turbas". Since the revolt began on April 18, they have been doing "dirty work". And these are the "turbas", so on Friday night to attack the university, occupied by students in May protesting against President Daniel Ortega. They waited for the sunset to cross a deserted Managua and paralyzed by the second general strike, organized by the opposition.

And grab the boys by surprise. The blitz was brutal. Commandos fired heavy weapons at students seeking shelter behind the barricades. One of them died instantly. Another, seriously wounded, died a few hours later in the Church of Divine Mercy. There they took refuge in more than a hundred, fleeing the "turbas", with the reporter of Washington Post Joshua Partlow, and the correspondent of 100% Noticias José Noel Marenco. Priests Raúl Zamora and Erick Alvarado, who were inside the parish, welcomed them and improvised a field hospital to treat the 14 wounded. The paramilitaries, however, did not give up and started shooting at the church, hitting two other boys.

The atrocious messages sent by them via mobile phones and broadcast on social networks, have sent on the spot relatives, friends and other protesters came to release the boys. However, they could not get closer because the police surrounded the area. He also prevented access to ambulances, called to rescue the wounded. Until the end of the morning yesterday (the evening in Italy), the crowd remained there, in front of armed agents to the teeth

A still image of a videos of wounded students in Managua

With the rosary at the hand, some standing, others kneeling, praying, alternating with the singing orations of old revolutionary songs. The same ones who, in the seventies, also sang the president-commander during the anti-Somoza insurrection. The nuncio, Bishop Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, and Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua, saved the besieged. At dawn, after a night spent in mediation, the two presented themselves to Divine Mercy to take the boys, accompanied by various buses and representatives of the UN and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. # 39; man.

After a grueling pull and a spring, in the end, they managed to free the besieged, immediately transferred to the cathedral, waiting for security guarantees to return home. This is the umpteenth time that the Church must hurry to redeem groups of protesters in the crosshairs of agents and paramilitaries. The most famous episode took place in Masaya on June 21, when bishops made human shields to protesters. On Monday, in a similar badogy to Diriamba, the shepherds were attacked by the "turbas" and beaten. Despite the aggression and continuing violence, the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference decided to continue the difficult mediation in the dialogue between the government and the opposition.

"Let's not stop betting on trading. There is no other way out of the crisis, as Pope Francis has repeated many times," he said. declared Cardinal Brenes. "It is necessary to do everything possible to keep the dialogue alive, and I demand an effort from all those in positions of responsibility," added the Nuncio. Faced with the government's repressive escalation, the opposition organized a series of parades over the weekend. The president, however, does not seem ready to leave power. He has already announced magnificent celebrations for next Thursday, the 39th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, of which he has proclaimed himself the exclusive representative.