[ad_1]
"The bullets passed us over the head," says one of the more than 200 surviving students of a church attacked by government forces, in an episode of violence that has done more 300 dead. Nicaragua
The paramilitaries were 50 meters from where they "attacked us ruthlessly and made two attempts to burn the church with us inside," says the young man who identified himself as El Negro .
After beginning the attack on Friday by noon paramilitaries of various flanks, students entrenched at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN) sought refuge in the temple of Divine Mercy, near the campus, southeast of Managua
It was almost a day of horror that the two hundred students who were expelled from UNAN lived, an operation that resulted in two deaths and about 14 hours eridos, according to Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, who led a mission to remove the boys who were in the temple.
"They did not respect the church and the image of the virgin, Christ, everything was broken, the walls remained.] [la Pâque] (boring)" in pulling, he adds d & # 39; a broken voice.
Almost at dawn on Saturday, with the risk of being shot, "we went out to put out the fire, because the church was burning" Despite moments of extreme tension that were lived for nearly 20 hours "I felt no fear, but a lot of helplessness because they did not know what to do". they attacked us with AK-47s, Dragunovs, and grenades; we had only homemade mortars and barricades, "says another student
The trenches made of stones and cobblestones did not protect them because they were sprayed with shots fired from far away. The attack was so brutal that an explosion was felt strong when "they threw a grenade that hit the wall of the door that disturbed it and then went into the door. UNAN, "he adds
" Gerald Vásquez was killed, head could not do anything and we lost it, "said the appalled 22-year-old. asked not to be identified after ensuring that he would continue the civic struggle until the resignation of President Daniel Ortega
. that at midnight "they took away the electricity and they started throwing us in the head (…) I saw one of my companions (Vásquez) fall, as it was night and it was dark until the morning we realized the other dead comrade "On a barricade, referring to Francisco José Flores.
UNAN students, the country's largest public university, took possession of the campus almost a month after the start of protests on April 18, due to UNAN control was the last redoubt in the hands of the students, having left by its own decision the Polytechnic University (UPOLI) to the constant headquarters of the police and related shock groups. to the government, which was trying to eliminate this hotbed of resistance in the east of Managua.
"I was at UPOLI but after leaving this campus, I had no more university to stay. I've seen a lot of comrades die by my side, I can not sit idly by, "says an engineering student who identifies as Geyko, 24.
Young people managed to quit Church yesterday morning by the leadership the Catholic hierarchy, at the head of which were Cardinal Brenes and members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights of the man.
Source link
