Nicaraguan Dictatorship Orders More Classroom Surveillance
The Nicaraguan Student Union (UNEN), a repressive arm of the dictatorship, tries to justify the surveillance of their fellow students.
HAVANA TIMES – After Nicaraguan “co-presidents” Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo officially announced their strategy of “revolutionary vigilance” on July 19th, Alison Lolof, vice president of the National Union of Nicaragua students (UNEN), assured that this “revolutionary vigilance” was present in the classrooms because the youth are committed to the Sandinista Front and their political project. She made these comments to justify the setting up of youth networks in the educational centers, to watch over and communicate what’s going on in “all the battle trenches” of the country.
Lolof affirmed that the Sandinista youth organized into eight different groups under the Ministry of Youth – among them the UNEN, the Federation of Secondary School Students (FES), and the Young Communicators’ Network – serve as “revolutionary guards” in every classroom, office, plaza and neighborhood.
“The youth aren’t sleeping,” she declared, assuring they won’t allow any repeat of “what happened in 2018,” in allusion to the April civic rebellion, that was later brutally repressed.
“He said it: ‘revolutionary vigilance.’ He said it should be from all the trenches, from every classroom. That’s why the movements that make up the Youth Ministry exist: eight branches – athletics, cultural, environmental, the FES, the UNEN, the movement for science and technology. All these groups are present in all the trenches of Nicaragua,” Lolof stated in an interview with the government-run Channel 4 television network.
She added: “In all corners: with artists, with high school students, university students, students in the technological centers… in all those trenches. That’s why he said it and made it clear: revolutionary vigilance from every corner of your work, from every corner of your office. We must be present. We are not asleep here. The youth are not asleep. We are more awake than ever, more alert to everything every day. And we don’t want 2018 to happen again. And it’s not going to happen again, because now we know, and we’re more awake than ever.”
Science and Technology Movement coordinator Eydan Romero, reiterated that the youth are “permanently on alert,” and that its role is to communicate “the real truth” about the regime, highlighting the achievements of the Sandinistas in public works, health, education, and infrastructure.
Both leaders emphasized that the recently unveiled slogan, “We are all Daniel” represents a watchword of vigilance, political loyalty and unconditional commitment to Ortega.
They know the people abhor them
To young activists like Edgard Blanco, forced to flee the country and now living in exile, these statements translate into a direct threat to the student body and a confession of political espionage.
“What they are doing is not supporting the student body, as they are trying to make it seem; in reality, it’s an open admission and a threat. It’s a warning that they will continue watching, spying, controlling. They are not allowing students to be free. That’s the current state of education in Nicaragua,” Edgard Blanco denounced.
“He added: “They’ve said it themselves; a direct confession of the parties, stand-in for proof. They don’t have a communicators’ network as they assert. What they’ve constructed is a social media troll network, designed to spread lies and manipulate public perception. Even Meta eliminated their accounts, due to their activities. They’ve had to recreate them, financed by the money paid by Nicaraguans, money from the taxes people pay, the same ones who are already being economically suffocated.”
The exiled dissenter noted that the so-called “youth movements” are nothing more than government apparatuses, controlled by the governing party, financed with public funds, and used to persecute the youth that oppose the regime.
They sell the story of the public works as great feats. They present them as exceptional achievements, heroic deeds of the co-dictators, when in reality they’re simple obligations of any responsible government. These are duties of the State, which are sustained by the taxes people pay.
“There is surveillance. There is espionage. And they say so with no shame, because there is no justice in that country. They’re not ashamed. [The youth leaders] want to frame themselves as leaders of the vanguard, but the truth is, they’re behind, always behind… behind the dictators, repeating obsolete speeches, behind caudillos who lived more than eighty years ago. And they’re still clinging to that old script, like an old man who refuses to let go of power, as is the case of Daniel Ortega, whom we are already seeing in his last days”, Blanco stated.
He recalled that the 2018 protests are still an open wound for the regime, and that’s why it continues trying to control all critical thinking in the schools. “They fear free thought. But we woke up in 2018, and we’re not going back to sleep.”
First published in Spanish by 100% Noticias and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.