You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (March 2019)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
April 19 University Movement | |
---|---|
Date | 25 April 2018 |
Location | |
Caused by |
|
The April 19 University Movement (Spanish initials: MU19A) is a Nicaraguan student movement created on April 25, 2018 [1] in Managua, Nicaragua. The student group opposes the government of Daniel Ortega who from 1979 to 1990 served as the country's first president following the Nicaraguan Revolution, was re-elected in 2006, and is the nation's current President. [2] The April 19 University Movement organized and participated in the 2018–2020 Nicaraguan protests that began April 18th, 2018 in response to Social Security (INSS) reforms. The group has also served as spokesperson in national dialogue. [3] [1]
This student movement is considered a terrorist group by the Nicaraguan government [4] as mentioned by the press: “The leaders [of the April 19th University Movement] are accused of crimes including murder, robbery, terrorism, kidnapping, trafficking, possession and use of restricted weapons, fires, torture, injuries, exposing people to danger.” [5]
In the April 25th, 2018 press conference of the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua (Spanish: Universidad Politécnica de Nicaragua, UPOLI), university students announced the creation of the April 19 University Movement which would serve as spokesperson for the dialogue with the government. [6] During the press conference, they presented their demands to the government including the liberation of prisoners, annulment of criminal records, suspension of high-ranking officials of the National Police [7] (including Aminta Granera and Francisco Díaz), guarantees of non-retaliation, and the reconstruction of university facilities. Moreover, they demanded the prosecution of those responsible for the deaths which have occurred due to the repression. There have been at least 481 deaths according to the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (ANPDH). [8]
The Movement held President Daniel Ortega and Vice President/First Lady Rosario Murillo responsible “for any act that infringes upon ours and our families’ constitutional rights and guarantees.” [9] The Movement invited the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua to participate in the dialogue with the government and affirmed that from the UPOLI they would continue “resisting until the demands are met.” [10] [11]
Amaya Coppens one of the leaders of the movement was chosen as an International Woman of Courage in March 2020 by the US Secretary of State. [12]
Coordinadora Revolucionaria de Masas was a coordination of revolutionary mass organizations in El Salvador formed on January 11, 1980.
Sergio Ramírez Mercado is a Nicaraguan writer and intellectual who was a key figure in 1979 revolution, served in the leftist Government Junta of National Reconstruction and as vice president of the country 1985–1990 under the presidency of Daniel Ortega. He has been described as Nicaragua's "best-known living writer". Since the 1990s, he has been involved in the left-wing opposition to the Nicaraguan government, in particular in the Movimiento de Renovación Sandinista. He was exiled from the country in 2021 and stripped of his nationality by the government in 2023.
Julio Godio was an Argentine sociologist.
General elections were held in Nicaragua on 5 November 2006. The country's voters went to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic and 90 members of the National Assembly. Daniel Ortega (FSLN) won the election with 37.99% of the vote, Eduardo Montealegre (ALN) trailing with 28.30%, José Rizo (PLC) with 27.1%, Edmundo Jarquín (MRS) with 6.29%, and Edén Pastora (AC) with 0.29%.
Central American University – Managua is a private Catholic university located in Managua, Nicaragua. It was founded in July 1960 by the Society of Jesus on land donated by the Somoza family and was the first private university in Central America. It numbers among its alumni Daniel Ortega, who did not graduate, Daisy Zamora, Sheynnis Palacios, and Ernesto Leal. On August 16, 2023, the government seized the university and renamed it Universidad Nacional Casimiro Sotelo Montenegro.
The Honduran Patriotic Front was a coalition of political groups active in Honduras in the early 1980s.
The 2014 Venezuelan protests began in February 2014 when hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans protested due to high levels of criminal violence, inflation, and chronic scarcity of basic goods because of policies created the Venezuelan government. The protests have lasted for several months and events are listed below according to the month they had happened.
Sofía Montenegro Alarcón is a Nicaraguan journalist, social researcher, and feminist. Montenegro's family were militarily aligned with the Somoza forces, but her feminist and Marxist studies moved her to join with the opposition to the regime. She fought in the Sandinista Revolution and though initially supportive of the Sandinista Party, later became an outspoken critic, saying it had moved to the right. She served as an editor of various divisions of the official Sandinista newspaper, Barricada, until 1994, when she founded the Center for Communication Research (CINCO) as an independent research organization free of government influence. She has written broadly on power, gender, and social interaction.
The protests against Daniel Ortega were a series of protests against President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega and actions performed by his government, the dismantling of the opposition, and violence against peaceful protesters. The protests began in 2014, when the construction of the Nicaragua Canal was about to begin, and several hundred protesters blocked roads and clashed with police during the groundbreaking of the canal. Tens of thousands of Nicaraguans began to protest against President Ortega for what they believe to be a corrupt electoral system.
Adriana María Paniagua Cabrera is a Nicaraguan model and beauty pageant titleholder who won the Miss Nicaragua 2018 and competed at Miss Universe 2018 pageant.
The 2018 Nicaraguan protests began on 18 April 2018 following a move by the government of Daniel Ortega to reform social security. Following the deaths of protesters, demonstrations intensified and grew into a large anti-Ortega movement seeking his removal from office.
The following lists events in the year 2019 in Nicaragua.
Silvio José Báez Ortega, OCD is a Nicaraguan Discalced Carmelite and a prelate of the Catholic Church. He earned a doctorate from the Pontifical Gregorian University, and then served primarily in Guatemala and the Vatican from 1989 to 2009. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Managua. He left Nicaragua and went into exile in April 2019 after receiving threats on his life.
The 2018 Nicaraguan protests began on 18 April 2018 when demonstrators in several cities of Nicaragua began protests against the social security reforms decreed by President Daniel Ortega that increased taxes and decreased benefits. After five days of unrest in which nearly thirty people were killed, Ortega announced the cancellation of the reforms; however, the opposition has grown through the 2014–2018 Nicaraguan protests to denounce Ortega and demand his resignation, becoming one of the largest protests in his government's history and the deadliest civil conflict since the end of the Nicaraguan Revolution. On 29 September 2018, political demonstrations were declared illegal by President Ortega.
The negotiations during the crisis in Venezuela are the negotiation and dialogue attempts and processes between the government of Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition. Although numerous dialogue processes and roundtables have taken place, by 2023 none had been effective in achieving a solution to the country's crisis.
Amaya Eva Coppens Zamora is a Nicaraguan Belgian student activist. She is a leading figure of the April 19 University Movement, founded during protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega. She was chosen as an International Woman of Courage in March 2020.
Anarchism in Nicaragua emerged during the United States occupation of Nicaragua, when the workers' movement was first organized against the interests of foreign capital. This led to a synthesis of Latin American anarchism with the goals of national liberation, which influenced the early Sandinista movement.
José Adán Aguerri Chamorro, nicknamed Chanito, is a Nicaraguan economist and civic leader. He is the former president of Nicaraguan business chamber, the Superior Council for Private Enterprise (COSEP), where he worked closely with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega as a strong proponent of the "consensus model" that gave the business community a large degree of influence over economic policy in exchange for supporting Ortega. However, the consensus broke down over social security reforms and human rights abuses in April 2018 and Aguerri became a vocal critic of Ortega. Aguerri was arrested in June 2021 along with a number of other opposition leaders including six opposition pre-candidates seeking to challenge Ortega's reelection bid in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election.
Medardo Mairena Sequeira is a Nicaraguan farmer and coordinator of the peasant (campesino) movement. Mairena has worked in the peasant anti-canal movement since 2013 and has been an active opposition leader since the national protests broke out in late April 2018, participating in the National Dialogue between protestors and the government of Daniel Ortega, mediated by the Catholic Church. Two months later he became one of a large number of dissidents arrested and prosecuted for terrorism; Mairena was sentenced to 261 years in prison, serving one year before he was released under a negotiated Amnesty Law.
The Federación Universitaria de Buenos Aires is a federation of students' unions in the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). It was founded in 1909, and presently represents the over 300 thousand graduate students enrolled at UBA. It forms part of the Argentine University Federation, and is its largest member.