A symbolic coffin with the Nicaraguan flag alongside photographs of young people killed in the protests against President Daniel Ortega in 2018 led a vigil this Sunday in Costa Rica, where thousands of exiles live, to commemorate the sixth anniversary of a massacre that occurred on Mother’s Day.
In the parish of La Merced, in the heart of San José, Nicaraguans residing in Costa Rica gathered to pay tribute to the 16 people killed on Mother’s Day in 2018, which is celebrated on May 30 in Nicaragua.
“We commemorate the sixth anniversary of that atrocious day, which was the greatest pain for mothers, the murder of their children,” said Azucena López, a Nicaraguan exiled in Costa Rica and a member of the Mothers of April Association, which brings together women who lost their children in the protests.
Ortega asserts that the protests, which erupted in April 2018 and left more than 300 dead in three months according to the United Nations, were an attempted coup sponsored by Washington and supported by a sector of the clergy.
López recounts that on Mother’s Day 2018, young people had called on mothers “to join a march” and claims that the government repressed it with gunfire. “May 30, Mother’s Day, is no longer a joyful day. It was the great massacre carried out by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega,” added López, 57.
We must “remember our children who were murdered” and their struggle for “a Nicaragua without dictatorship,” she added. In addition to the tribute, a mass was also held, officiated by two Nicaraguan priests exiled in Costa Rica, Harving Padilla and Uriel Vallejos, both stripped of their nationality by the Ortega government.
“Nicaragua came out peacefully (to protest in 2018) but the repression was cruel, very harsh. Nicaragua will not forgive what Daniel Ortega and his wife (Vice President Rosario Murillo) have done,” said Vallejos.
There are strong tensions between the Catholic Church and the Ortega government. During the past Christmas and New Year holidays, about twenty clergy members were detained and later released on January 14 and sent to Rome, following an agreement with the Vatican.
