Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Repudiated in New York
The Nicaraguan called out Foreign Minister Denis Moncada at the end of a community-popular mass held in New York organized by the Ortega-Murillo regime.
HAVANA TIMES – A group of Nicaraguans in New York protested Ortega’s Foreign Minister Dennis Moncada, while he participated in a “popular-community” mass celebrated by Puerto Rican Priest Luis Barrios in the Santa Cruz Church. The religious gathering was organized by Daniel Ortega’s government to speak against US sanctions. Moncada was called out by the group as being “complicit in all of Ortega’s crimes.”
The Foreign Minister was sitting in the first row of the church, and after the sermon, gave a speech in which he expounded on the “developments and achievements “of the Ortega-Murillo administration in Nicaragua. The mass was held Sunday, September 26. According to the official media, there was a portrait of General Augusto César Sandino together with a Nicaraguan flag displayed near the altar.
Moncada is in the United States within the framework of the 76th General Assembly of the United Nations. According to a press release, the religious event was held under the theme of “Liberty, Autonomy and Solidarity in the Face of US Sanctions.”
“President Daniel Ortega always says that Nicaragua’s politics is skewed towards a vision for the poor,” Moncada said, and added that “President Ortega’s government is currently the revival by electoral means, of what was the revolutionary triumph by political military means in 1979. What we have done is renew the political objective of restoring the fundamental rights of Nicaraguans,” Moncada said during his speech.
Father Barrios, alluding to the socio-political crisis, urged the United States to let Nicaraguans solve their problems.“ Let the Nicaragua people solve their own problems, settle their problems of democracy, human rights and national security. They don’t tell the United States how to resolve those problems. It is not up to the US government that historically has demonstrated that all it cares about is stealing, colonizing and controlling,” according to the Mass that was broadcast on the parish’s Facebook page.
“Complicit in Ortega’s crimes”
At the end of the Mass, one of the attendees confronted Moncada: “I’m going to take advantage of the freedom we have in this country. I’m going to speak to you respectfully as the Church authorities asked me to, but I tell you, from my heart, that you don’t deserve respect because you are complicit in all of Ortega’s crimes. But that’s ok. If you say that there is political freedom, why are all the presidential candidates in jail? Why are these candidates imprisoned? Why are they in jail?”
Other members of the Nicaraguan diaspora shouted: ¡Viva Nicaragua! ¡Libertad! ¡Asesinos! (Viva Nicaragua! Freedom! Murderers!)
The Foreign Minister did not answer. He only turned and walked away, while part of his entourage shouted at the protesters “Satanists, Satanists” and waved the red and black flag of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). Participating in the Mass were members of the Nicaragua solidarity movement and Sandinista government representatives living in New York.
Protest outside the church
While inside the church the Foreign Minister gave his address, outside another group of Nicaraguans stationed in front of the church held a protest. They carried a Nicaraguan flag and were led by the university student and member of the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy (ACJD), Ariana Moraga. She had denounced on social media the human rights violations executed by the Ortega regime, and the situation that the recently imprisoned members of the opposition are going through.
She cited the desperate conditions of student leaders Lesther Alemán and Max Jerez, and presidential hopeful Miguel Mora who are deprived of liberty in the prison known as the new Chipote, as well as all the political prisoners they are demanding freedom for, mentioning their names.
“There are more than 150 people illegally detained under laws that are completely unconstitutional and violate the legal rights of Nicaraguans. They have co-opted all the powers of the State, absolutely everything. Everything is under the control of the Ortega-Murillo family. It’s impossible for Nicaraguans to go to the police or the Attorney General’s office. We can’t get medical assistance when we have been beaten. How lovely it is to listen to Moncada’s peaceful words referring to a country where the situation is quite different,” said Moraga during the protest that lasted about 40 minutes.