UNAB Says “Piquetes Express are a go, but not at Metrocentro” to avoid chaos.

April 2, 2019

Nicaragua

Unidad Nacional Azul y Blanco issued a warning this afternoon: Don’t picket at Metrocentro. The warning was published via social media. Piquetes Express are scheduled for today.

“We ask that the population avoid picketing at Metrocentro, because recent activities have been infiltrated [by Ortega sympathizers] who have caused chaos. Our security is paramount!”

The warning is right on target, as Metrocentro is also full of police officers at this time.

Police have also been spotted at Multicentro Las Américas, in the Managua neighborhood of Bello Horizonte, and at Galerías Santo Domingo.

Hours before the scheduled pickets, the government’s office for human rights — the PDDH, arose from its slumber. Via interview with journalist Houston Castillo,  Deputy Solicitor for Human Rights Adolfo Jarquín accused the owners of Metrocentro of violating human rights. The Ortega-Murillo government proposes the PDDH as guarantor for the agreements.

The truth is as follows: There’s a group that goes there and they impact the rights of other people who go to that shopping mall to shop. The owners of Metrocentro are responsible. The owner of Metrocentro violates human rights. He cannot be protecting people who are violating human rights.

On March 30, police attempted to break up a protest action at Metrocentro and arrested at least seven picketers.

Chaos broke out later that afternoon, when a card-carrying member of the FSLN opened fire on the crowd, wounding at least three.

Protesters are picketing elsewhere. This video shows MRS members Ana Margarita Viji and Marlen Chow, along with others, protesting in Managua. The location has been identified as “the traffic light at El Guanacaste,” on Carretera Sur.

The agreement that the government and the Alianza Cívica signed on Friday stated that peaceful, public assembly is a right, as long as it doesn’t impede traffic and/or pedestrian movement. This picket complies with both conditions.

This picket, at the UCA, is also in compliance. Police is reported to be outside of the university.

This group brought out a huge Nicaraguan flag. They also made t-shirts, emblazoned with the hashtag #ALaCalle.

Protests were no limited to Managua. Citizens in Jinotega posted signs on public places

Nicaraguans also protested in El Salvador

Piquetes express demand restitution of civil and political rights, as well as the release of political prisoners.

The Ortega-Murillo government has been thus far unwilling to grant either. Today, the police re-arrested Leo Navarrete Lumbí, an excarcerated political prisoner, who came to the Managua Judicial Complex voluntarily, in compliance with the conditions of his house arrest. Video taken at the scene shows Navarrete being escorted to a police vehicle, as his lawyer and other witnesses question the officers as to why they are taking Navarrete away.

The Ortega-Murillo Propaganda Machine is not reporting on these stories, or on the negotiations, even though they send staff members to all press conferences held by the Alianza Cívica. Instead, the online editions of at least two of the OrMu propaganda outlets included stories about a national drawing contest, World Autism Day, the new Bluefields-Corn Island shipping route, and Easter holidays.

The police deployment at Metrocentro and Galerías also merited attention. Viva Nicaragua 13 and Barricada posted two videos shot by an unnamed person, who walked up to police officers and thanked them. In the first video, a woman walks up to a line of police officers and says “Thank you for keeping us safe from all the criminals that came on Saturday.”

In the second video, a male walks up to riot police officers at Galerías and says “We thank the officers of our glorious national police for keeping an eye on the people.”

The highlight of every day at the OrMu Propaganda Machine media outlets is the broadcast of Rosario Murillo’s daily address. Today, she talked about the new ambassadors who presented their credentials to Daniel Ortega, the fourteenth anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II, and the homage to Martin Luther King, organized by the MLK University, an Evangelical institution of higher education. Murillo closed her remarks by promising to return tomorrow, “if God allows it, because everything we do is for the glory of God.”

 

 

 

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