“We regret nothing.” Five Nicaraguans who participated in the April Rebellion celebrate the courage of the citizenry against the dictatorship.
By Cindy Regidor (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – On April 18, 2018, the sociopolitical reality of Nicaragua changed dramatically. The rebellion of citizens demanding rights took the entire country by surprise, shook the Ortega Murillo regime, and turned everything upside down.
That day, in Leon and Managua, senior citizens, supported by young university students and other citizens, protested a change in the pension system that would leave them with less money in their pockets. A few days earlier, dozens of university students had protested against the negligence with which authorities were responding to a serious fire in the Indio Maíz reserve in Nicaragua’s Caribbean region.
The physical attacks by members of the Sandinista Youth against the protesters, recorded and shared by citizens on social media, provoked the indignation of more citizens from all sectors and all over the country, who decided to demonstrate with university takeovers, daily and massive marches and sit-ins and citizen barricades that paralyzed the entire national territory. The regime responded with lethal repression, and the death toll began to climb into the dozens. Simultaneously, the collective outcry for justice for the victims, the cessation of state repression, the regime’s exit from power, and the return of democracy to the country grew.
It was more than a hundred days of the April Rebellion to which the dictatorship responded with the deadly “Operation Clean-up”, the imposition of a de facto police state, the imprisonment of all dissenters, and persecution that has driven tens of thousands to leave the country.
“It was a shock,” recalls Dr. Rommel Melendez, regarding that April 18, six years ago, as he saw the first images of the protests and attacks by Sandinista Youth members on local television channels. Young Valeska Valle and Yaritzha Rostran left their homes without thinking much, ready to join the student demonstrations in solidarity with those attacked.
Human rights defender Damaso Vargas didn’t hesitate either and the next day he was already supporting the students barricaded in one of the public universities. Professor Gabriel Putoy was giving his Math lesson at the Salesian School in Granada when someone texted him asking about his family’s safety. The teacher had no idea what was happening until he found out that very close to his home in Monimbo, Masaya, the police had attacked the elderly who were protesting for their pensions. The indigenous people’s response did not take long, and when the teacher returned home, he couldn’t believe what he saw: the city was in “insurrection.”
On the Esta Noche program five Nicaraguans who participated in the April Rebellion of 2018 recalled where they were when the citizen explosion occurred, highlighting moments and lessons from those days. They assure they regret nothing as they only exercised their rights as Nicaraguans. They discussed the aftermath of their exile in Costa Rica, and shared their expectations for the future of Nicaragua, which today remains under a radicalized dictatorship.
These are the testimonies of Dr. Rommel Melendez, from La Concepcion, Masaya; human rights defender of the LGBTI population Damaso Vargas; Managua university students Yaritzha Rostran and Valeska Valle, both members of university movements; and Professor Gabriel Putoy, from Monimbo, Masaya.
Dr. Rommel Melendez: “The people were in the streets, and we almost brought down this dictatorship.”
When the Rebellion broke out, I was working at the Ministry of Health (MINSA) and that day I began to watch the news on television and on social media, first with the elderly in Leon, then in Camino de Oriente in Managua. I was super surprised that a rebellion was gradually taking place. But the dictatorship’s response was swift, and I think it further fueled the protests.
During the protests, we managed to organize to support the students and youth. From La Concepcion, people traveled to Managua for the marches, sending 20 or 30 buses. In the first clash in my municipality, more than 53 people were injured, attacked by the Sandinista Youth, municipal workers, and other state institution employees. We had to organize a clandestine medical post to provide care because MINSA had closed the city center’s facilities.
We did what we had to do. I wouldn’t change anything. Despite not being with my family, I wouldn’t change it.
In exile, I have been unable to practice medicine due to barriers set by the Costa Rican Medical College and obstacles we face in Nicaragua, which doesn’t provide us with documents. In Costa Rica, I have worked with a survey company, at a restaurant: initially at the reception, then in the dining room, and now as a bartender. It’s been a drastic change after 28 years of practicing medicine, but all experiences are welcome as they provide a means of subsistence for myself and my family.
We need unity among all Nicaraguan sectors to bring down the dictatorship. I think what was done in 2018 was a popular response from the students, from the youth, from all sectors, but it wasn’t a coordinated force that said: “This is what we’ll do.” It did demonstrate that the people were in the streets and nearly brought down this dictatorship. We need to improve organization, unity, and for all sectors against the dictatorship to come together in a united front.
Valeska Valle: “April made us discover the strength of Nicaraguans to generate change”
On the morning of April 19, I went to the area of the National Engineering University (UNI), where I stayed until the 20th, when the police, paramilitaries, and Sandinista Youth entered with weapons to remove us, and then I moved to the Polytechnic Unive