The Central American province of the Jesuit order has issued a formal rebuke to the government of Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega following the confiscation this week of the Central American University (UCA) of Managua.
In a public statement titled “In defense of truth, justice, liberty and the right to education and in support of the UCA of Nicaragua,” the Jesuits deny the charges that the UCA has become a “center of terrorism,” calling the accusation “totally false and unfounded.”
Accused by the government of having “betrayed the trust of the Nicaraguan people” and of having “transgressed the constitutional and legal order,” the Jesuits reply that such trumped up charges are a mere cover to justify a “drastic, unexpected, and unjust measure.”
“This is a government policy that is systematically violating human rights and seems to be aimed at consolidating a totalitarian state,” they declare.
“It is necessary and essential that our university be allowed to exercise its inalienable right to legitimate defense against said accusations,” they add.
File/Nicaraguan Catholic bishop Rolando Alvarez speaks to the press at the Santo Cristo de Esquipulas church in Managua, on May 20, 2022. Alvarez, a strong critic of Daniel Ortega’s government, started on Thursday a hunger strike in protest against what he considers a persecution and police siege against him. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
The prestigious teaching and research work carried out by the University during its 63 years of existence “has been recognized nationally and internationally,” the statement reads, and “has been carried out in accordance with the educational tradition of the Society of Jesus and the guidelines of the Catholic Church.”
The text also insists that this “new government aggression” against the university is not an isolated event but rather part of a series of unjustified attacks against the Nicaraguan population and other educational and social institutions.
The UCA has been “the object of constant siege, harassment, and hostility by Nicaraguan government institutions” since April 2018, the Jesuits assert, as a consequence of its stance in defense of the lives of people who were being repressed by police and para-military forces.
Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi (L) is welcomed by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega (R) with an official ceremony at Olof Palme Convention Center in Managua, Nicaragua on June 14, 2023. ( Iranian Presidency / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
We hold the government of Nicaragua “responsible for all damages against the students, teaching and administrative staff, and other workers of the university,” the text states, which “derive from such an unjustified accusation and from the order to confiscate all the property and real estate and the economic patrimony of the university.”
The document ends with three demands from the Government of Nicaragua, namely, the immediate reversal of the confiscation, an end to the growing government aggression against the university and its members, and a reasonable solution in which truth, justice, dialogue, and the defense of academic freedom prevail.
“God is the one who has the last word on history and will also have it on Nicaragua,” it concludes.