Ortega can’t hide his massacre

NICARAGUA

Editorial

La Prensa

The Sandinista regime of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega isn’t fooling anybody, said La Prensa. Ortega lied to the U.N. Human Rights Council about his violent crackdown against protesters last year, when state security forces and pro-government militias killed more than 300 people and arrested hundreds more, sending tens of thousands fleeing the country. To their credit, the council’s representatives rejected the lies and recommended new, internationally monitored elections and the establishment of a similarly monitored Truth Commission to investigate the repression and its aftermath. If, as he claims, Ortega sincerely believes the protests were “a terrorist action forged from abroad,” aimed at ousting him, then he should welcome the opportunity to prove it. Let him try to convince any impartial observer that “the students and other citizens killed, the incarcerated and tortured, the exiles, the persecuted journalists” were all coupmongers. The events of April 2018 are not over. They resonate to this day, as reporters continue to be arrested and political opponents of the regime to flee. This national conflict can be resolved only through a process of “justice, reparations, nonrepetition, and reconciliation.” Ortega may be afraid that the truth will come out, but ordinary Nicaraguans already know it—and the U.N. is on our side.

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