Plans for the 5th Anniversary of Nicaragua’s April Uprising
Marches, sit-ins, artistic and religious expositions are part of the commemorative agenda that begins in Costa Rica on April 15th.
By Katherine Estrada Tellez (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – Five years since the April Rebellion, Nicaraguan exiles are preparing activities this weekend to celebrate the date in some cities of the Americas and Europe.
In Costa Rica
The agenda starts on Saturday, April 15, with a poetry night with open microphone at the El Pueblo Shopping Center. The activity is scheduled to begin at 6:30pm and is organized by the Democratic Renovation organization (UNAMOS) together with the groups Juntos for Nicaragua and Articulacion de Movimientos Sociales.
On Sunday, April 16, a “Memorial de Mujeres” (Women’s Memorial) will be held at the Feria Pinolera, next to Plaza de la Democracia (Democracy Square), starting at 9:00am. “The memorial will be a journey through the contributions of women in the April struggle and how we have organized ourselves from exile. We want to make the feminist struggle visible and recognize the work we do here from our political commitment,” said Damaso Vargas, from the Pinolera Women’s Network.
Among the collectives that will be part of the presentation of the memorial are the Subversivas (Subversives), Red Local (Local Network), and Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress.
At three o’clock in the afternoon, on the same day, the central commemorative act will take place at Plaza de la Democracia where several presentations by exiled artists, and messages of released political prisoners and Nicaraguans whose citizenship was taken away by the Ortega-Murillo regime will be shared.
On April 18, the Nicaraguan Human Rights Collective Never More and journalist and writer Gabriela Selser invite to the virtual presentation of the book “Crónicas de Abril” (April Chronicles) at 10:00 a.m., through the collective’s social networks.
Selser will also present the book on April 19, at 5:00 p.m., at the Radisson Hotel in San Jose and on April 21 at 4:00 p.m. at the Auditorium of the Autonomy Plaza of the University of Costa Rica, with the participation of Nicaraguan singer-songwriter Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy.
On Wednesday, April 19, the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress will present the podcast “Mujer Bastion de Lucha” (Woman as a bastion of struggle) at the Legislative Assembly at 10:30am. “In the context of April and highlighting the participation of women in the struggle, we will hold a forum to analyze the political role of women in the exercise of power. We will have congresswoman Montserrat Ruiz of the Legislative Assembly as moderator, with whom we are setting a precedent of women’s involvement in these spaces,” comments Claudia Vargas, coordinator of the Nicaraguan topic in the Arias Foundation for Peace.
You can watch the event through a live presentation on Facebook, and women who want to accompany the event could enter the QR code and fill out the form to participate in the pre-selection process, given that there are 30 spaces.
That same day, the April Mother’s Association (AMA) invites you to accompany them to a mass at five o’clock in the afternoon in the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in San Jose. “After the mass, we want to hold a vigil in the Central Park for those who join us,” says Azucena Lopez, AMA coordinator in Costa Rica.
In Miami
On Sunday, April 16, AMA is also coordinating with the Nicaraguan and exiled communities in Miami a mass at 1:00pm at the St. Agatha Catholic Church for the V anniversary “in memory of our family members who were victims of state repression in April 2018,” the flyer indicates.
In Los Angeles
“Marchemos por Nicaragua” (Let’s March for Nicaragua) is the activity that Nicaraguans in Los Angeles, California, are inviting to participate on April 22, at 11:00 a.m.
The march will be accompanied by some the Nicaraguan ex political prisoners with the objective of demanding the freedom of those who are still in the prisons of the Ortega-Murillo regime and denouncing the human rights violations that are taking place in the country.
The meeting point is the corner of 6th St. and Hill, of Pershing Square 530 S, Olive St., Los Angeles, CA 90013.
In Toronto
Nicaraguans living in Canada are inviting to join them in Ontario, Toronto, for a sit-in at Nathan Phillips Square from 2 to 4 p.m., on April 16. “We want you to join us to commemorate these dates, denouncing the human rights violations that are still taking place in Nicaragua and share a moment with the Nicaraguans who are here,” says one of the organizers of the event.
In Geneva
The Nicaraguans from Geneva, Switzerland, convoked a sit-in for Saturday, April 15, at 3:00 p.m., with the objective of standing in solidarity with families of the victims of the repression of April 2018. “In commemoration of the month that transformed the history of our country and as support in the search for truth and justice,” describes their invitation in Facebook. The meeting point will be Place des Nations, which is located in the center of the city of Geneva, in front of the National Palace.
In Madrid
This Thursday, April 12, the International Cooperation Initiative for Education in Nicaragua (ICIEN) and the Center for the Global Common Good held a seminar at the Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid, Spain, to analyze the role of the European Union in the socio-political crisis in Nicaragua and in which Sergio Ramirez, Nicaraguan writer and Cervantes Award winner, participated as a speaker, as well as Rogelio Nunez, deputy director of the Latin American Observatory.
In Zaragoza
The Free Nicaragua Association, Self-convoked of Zaragoza and the Nicaraguan community invites to commemorate five years of the April insurrection on Saturday, April 15, at 8:30pm in Plaza Espana, Zaragoza.
On April 19, at 7:00 p.m., in the old plenary room of the Provincial Council of Zaragoza, there will be a presentation of the documentary “18 hours to dawn” by the Nicaraguan Never Again Human Rights Collective, followed by a panel discussion with Amnesty International and exiled journalist Israel Gonzalez.