Category: Maynor Salazar

“We learned about it because a friend told us that he had been arbitrarily arrested. They said a policeman came and told him ‘we are going to take you’. My brother asked him ‘why are they going to take me?’ The agent responded, ‘We’re going to take you away,’ and Carlos turned around and they handcuffed him,” Elisa said.

That night Elisa and Carlos’s other relatives went to the National Police districts one, two, three and four. In none did they get an answer. When they arrived at El Chipote, the officer on duty denied them information. Again they made another tour of the police stations, ending again in the cells of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), where this time they confirmed that her brother was there.

“I did not look for any media to denounce what happened, I did not look for anyone, I still believed in justice, because I defended, I defended the vote of my commander Daniel Ortega, I was dying to go to the square, to be in an activity, because I believed that everything was fair, but today he is hurting a person who served him,” said Elisa.

Charged by the Police 

After eleven days detained in the cells of El Chipote, the National Police charged Silva on Tuesday and accused him of being the leader of a terrorist group “that maintained traffic barriers in the vicinity of the National University (UNAN) in Managua.” Senior Commissioner Farle Traña, second chief of the DAJ, added that in addition to being accused of terrorism, he “caused” damage to public property, used homemade weapons, industrial weapons, molotov bombs and launched mortars.

The Police “investigation” says that on May 11, at the Rigoberto López Pérez roundabout, Silva burned the chayopalos* installed there.

“I went to Channel 10 to tell the commander that I was willing to kiss his feet, because my brother is an innocent man. How can he repay me today by accusing him of being a terrorist, is there justice in this country? I want them to give me proof of the paraffin because my brother didn’t so much as light a match,” said Elisa.

Silva’s sister explained that her brother supported the barricaded students of the UNAN-Managua, bringing food so that they had something to eat. When her brother found out that a student was dying, he cried bitterly. And if he heard they were attacked, he would come out with an aluminum pot to bang and make noise in the neighborhood. Of course, he was never on the university campus.

“That was his way of protesting, but my brother was never a ringleader and he did not know the students, how is it possible that you do this to Daniel? Do not keep destroying our families, President. I honored you, I did not believe in any other channel more than in what the president said, and today I’m slapped in the face, that’s why I denounce you,” said Elisa.

She added that, “He (Daniel Ortega) knows very well that I was out there, supporting him faithfully in the elections, with that much I want to tell him, because I gave my life for the ballot box, because they would not take a vote from my president. I am not a politician, but I defended your vote, I ask you for justice for my brother.”

Illegal detention

As with other citizens, the detention of Carlos Silva occurred within the framework of illegality. Vladimir Miranda, the lawyer who leads the case, explained that until Tuesday, September 4, there was no accusation against him in the courts of Managua.

“Arrest is for a serious crime or by judicial order. And we have a more than clear understanding that neither of these exists in the case of Carlos, which is why we talk about kidnapping. No charges have been filed in the courts of Managua. Eleven days have passed. We were expecting the order of the judge within 48 hours, and that was not the case,” said Miranda.

The lawyer explained that the family of Carlos Silva has a judicial record dated August 29, which indicates that Carlos has no legal precedent, which proves that he was illegally detained.

“We used all the legal avenues mandated by our law, we filed an appeal, an judge was appointed, we went to El Chipote, we met with the judge and they did not even let him in. From the legal point of view, there is no alternative for these people. It is more than clear that the rule of law in Nicaragua is weak, even if you have all the resources, what the law orders you to do, everything that the law dictates at this time, isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” lamented Miranda.

The lawyer added that the citizens are being unfairly accused and there is no option that will enforce their rights. He said that the Prosecutor’s Office, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Police, the judges, are in collusion.

“I’m not the one to say if you leave or if something is going to happen to you or if you want to die. That’s your problem, you’ll know how you’re going to defend yourself, but I defended you one day, and I fought because I thought you were the best candidate, and today I feel deceived,” insisted Elisa, speaking of Daniel Ortega.

Elisa said that she never received any privileges from the government party and that her fidelity was not bought by a piece of land or two hundred cordobas. Neither with food nor a political position.

“I did believe in Daniel Ortega, and I say it in a different channel, and I believed with all my honor. And it hurts me that they are not speaking the truth about my brother. I worked for this government, Ortega knows that I did that work out of love Because I did not receive a payment from the Council. I did it out of love, because I liked my Government. I ask my brother’s forgiveness for having loved a government that today deceives me, “Elisa concluded.

*Translator’s note: “Chayo palos” are ornamental tree-like sculptures, also known as “trees of life” installed at enormous expense (reportedly $25,000 each) under the direction of Nicaragua’s first lady Rosario Murrillo, who is nicknamed “Chayo.”

________________________________

Editor’s note: This article has been published in the Nicaraguan newspaper Confidencial which authorizes this newspaper to reproduce it.

The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.

The neighbors who helped Cinthia’s family told Confidencial that very early in the morning a contingent of heavily armed police and paramilitaries, who were mobilizing in several vans, was deployed throughout the neighborhood. Its objective was to remove the barricades that citizens had erected on the road that goes to El Mayoreo market.

The troops, according to the witnesses who observed from their homes, proposed to locate one of their snipers on top of Cinthia’s house, a three-story construction that from the top floor has a perfect view of the road and the adjoining neighborhoods.

“They were looking for a vantage point from which to shoot us all and to prevent us from resisting when they removed the barricades,” said a witness.

Placing a man on the roof would allow him to cover the backs of the officers and paramilitaries while they dismantled the barricades. They surrounded the three-story structure and then banged on the doors. The owners of the house refused to open and this unleashed the fury of the attackers, who ruthlessly threw Molotov cocktails and shot mortars and bullets.

Cinthia’s house was laid out as follows: on the first floor were the mattresses and other materials used in their mattress factory. On the second floor were the bedrooms, and at the top there was a large space where the family engaged in evangelical worship.

Molotov cocktails and mortar bombs caused the entire first floor to catch fire quickly. The fire advanced to the second floor of the house, where nine people were locked in a room, including Cinthia. Downstairs the paramilitaries were shooting at the citizens who came to try to help. The horror movie continued with a chilling script.

The story of a survivor

Javier Pavón is sitting on the sidewalk outside the three-story house. He watches his neighbors go by with buckets full of water. They try to smother the last flames of the fire that devastated the house in which he and eight of his relatives lived. His face is sad, his eyes read and he has the look of someone lost. He is approached by some “brothers” of the church. They ask him how he survived the fire.

Javier lived and worked in Oscar’s mattress manufacturing and sales business. “My uncle was very good to me, he always supported me,” he says, covering his face with his shirt. He cries, because he could not save all the people in the house.

“I got up because I heard the shots, we were all on the second floor, my uncle had said he was not going to open up for those who were shooting, and we locked ourselves in, waiting for them to stop attacking us, but then black smoke came into the room and we began to suffocate,” says Javier.

The room filled with more smoke. They were being suffocated, but Oscar said no one would come out. That could be dangerous. Javier ignored him and left by way of the balcony, which was on the same floor.

“I do not know how, but with my hands I broke open the door.” I went through the thick glass, I don’t know how, but when I felt I could breathe, I continued. I do not know where I got the strength, but I opened the door, and pushed it back and when I got out, I felt how the air reached my lungs,” he said.

The first thing Javier thought to do was to throw himself from the balcony onto the street. He was going to do it, when he heard the voices of two of his cousins: Cinthia and Maribel Pavón. Then he went back for them and brought them with him to the safety zone he had reached.

In the midst of despair the three threw themselves from the balcony of the house. There were no paramilitaries nearby, nor were there any officers. It was then that the neighbors came to help those who were still inside.

“At that moment I wanted to have superpowers, to go in and rescue my uncle, the children, but I could not, I could not, only my two cousins managed to get out,” said Javier, in tears.

Everyone took refuge in a nearby house. Cinthia took the opportunity to record a video, and accused the paramilitaries and the National Police directly of the attack. She also pointed to President Ortega and his family.

“They burned my house, the mattress factory and my whole family is dead, the children, my brothers, my mom, they burned my house, they burned it, I got out because I threw myself off the balcony… My parents, they killed them… but I curse Daniel Ortega and all his family and all his descendants, I curse them,” said Cinthia in a publication that soon went viral.

The neighbors opened the doors of the house. With buckets they tried to put out the fire. It was an almost impossible task to extinguish the flames that way. Fortunately the Benemérito Fire Department came and with the support of the residents, they managed to stop the advance of the fire. However, it was already too late for the six people left on the third floor.

During the rescue efforts, the firefighters found the bodies of Alfredo, Oscar, Maritza and Ángela, completely burned. Matias and Daryelis were in the same room, but with apparent vital signs. They were both lowered to the ground, however, only the child had a pulse. He was transferred in a taxi to the German hospital, but on the way he died.

The neighbors say that if the armed groups had not stayed in front of the house firing at those who tried to help the victims, probably none of the people would have died.

“We tried to go out and help people but the police told us, so vulgarly, ’fuck your asses.’ Even when we were removing the last body, a police van drove by and they shot at all of use. We had to run into the house to save our lives,” explained one of the witnesses.

Another citizen said that the police patrols had the plan to take the house and they wanted to execute it early, however, they did not count on the owners of the house refusing to let them in.

“From five o’clock in the morning they passed by in rank after rank, they were in civilian clothes, hooded, and they went into a house that was empty on the corner, and the people who were passing by were told to go back. Then they started to burn the house, they did not move, they let the family stay trapped and burn to death,” another citizen reported.

 Two dead on June 9th

A few minutes after the arson in the Carlos Marx neighborhood, the paramilitaries and officers went to the outskirts of Villa Miguel Gutiérrez and Colonia Nueve de Junio to demolish other barricades that were on that street.

The troops entered this sector firing against the barricades. The citizens did not leave their homes. They defended themselves from within with homemade weapons and mortars. They also recorded with their cell phones the officers and paramilitaries who fired on the houses.

In the confrontation two people, identified by the residents as paramilitaries, fell among the barricades. “What the police did was take their guns and then they left, they left them like dogs in the street, they did not care if they were alive or dead. That’s how they see them, like some kind of shit,” said one of the citizens of Colonia 9 de Junio.

In his pants the villagers found a vaccination card. The man was identified as Francisco Aráuz Pineda, from Matagalpa, 54 years old, who according to official media, was a “historic fighter of the FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front)” and the son of Amanda Pineda, who was a victim of torture by Somoza’s police in the seventies. According to the same informant, Aráuz was helping to clean up when he was killed. This version has not yet been confirmed.

The other citizen was identified as Antonio Fernández. He fell in the area of the traffic lights of Villa Miguel Gutiérrez. The residents said that his body was removed by the paramilitaries aboard a Hilux.

After searching his bags and finding the vaccination card, protesters from the barricades took the lifeless body of Aráuz to the middle of the street. They sprayed him with gasoline, and in an act of revenge, they set him on fire. The act of barbarism was immediately condemned by thousands of citizens

“Why did they burn the body?”

“Because they (the paramilitaries) burned a whole family. Six people. But you know, at least we burned him when he was dead, while they burned that family alive.”

The lies of Edwin Castro

While the bodies of the six people who had died in the fire were taken to where the wake would be held, at the National Dialogue Roundtable the government representatives were alleging that these people were sympathetic to the FSLN and had supposeldy been victims of “vandals of the right.”

“And I wanted to tell you that the deceased family was a recognized Sandinista family in that neighborhood,” said Deputy Edwin Castro. However, the relatives of the Pavón family refuted what the government party legislator said.

Oscar Pavón, the son of the victims, declared that his family has never belonged to any political party, except the Sandinista Front. He said that those who killed his father and mother were the mobs and the National Police. He insisted that he witnessed how these groups set fire to the house and threatened the neighbors who were trying to help the victims.

“It was the JS and the Police that killed my family, they killed my whole family, those damn dogs,” he said.

During the Dialogue Roundtable, the government’s representative read a communiqué issued by the General Directorate of Firefighters of Nicaragua, in which they claimed that residents of the place said that hooded criminals “who have been stalking the area for several weeks, threw Molotov cocktails causing the fire.”

The document said that “when they arrived to control the fire, they could not intervene quickly because the doors of the premises were locked… while the firemen were carrying out their work, they were being besieged and attacked by hooded groups.”

However, this version was refuted by the neighbors, who clarified that those who came to the site were members of the Benemérito Fire Department. “What they say is a lie, no one was attacked here,” explained a neighbor.

Second lieutenant Oscar Robleto, of the Benemérito Fire Department, told the media that they worked together with the neighbors so that the fire did not spread. He affirmed that they were never attacked and always coordinated with the population to put out the flames.

The legal director of the Cenidh (Nicaraguan Human Rights Center), Gonzalo Carrión, blamed the Government for this new massacre. He also said he had no recent comparison of the levels of crime found in the country.

“We are subjected to a state of terror, it is an expression of the terrorist State itself because they are criminal structures that are fully organized from the central power, there is no turning back. This is an execution and it is the responsibility of the Government of Nicaragua,” he said.

Intimidate at the wake

The coffins of the two children are in the center of the church hall. In front of them are the coffins of their grandparents and behind them those of their parents. All are surrounded by friends, family, acquaintances.

Some people can not bear it and are crying. Others just look at Cinthia, who is still playing with little feet of Matthias. The atmosphere is tense. The other relatives do not want videos or photos to be taken. They are afraid that the police and the paramilitaries will look for them to kill them.

“Do not record me, please, do not record me,” says the son of Oscar and Maritza. The journalists are paying attention More people are approaching the church, hoping to give encouragement and strength to the relatives of the victims. Javier is not present, they said he was very affected.

At night a group of paramilitaries fired several shots in the vicinity of the church. This caused panic among those present so they decided to return to their homes. The repressive forces did not pause in their intimidation.

“The police do not want us to continue denouncing what happened, although it is difficult because the videos abound on social networks, they killed these people, they set fire to them, they let them die,” said a neighbor, who had to leave the wake, like the rest of those present.

 ___________________________

Editor’s note: This text was initially published in the Confidential newspaper. We reproduce it with the authorization of this Nicaraguan digital newspaper.

The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.