USA – Students Speak Out after Confiscation of the Universidad Centroamericana Nicaragua
“When I realized that government officials were there, that they had closed the university, that they were even taking the name of the university down [from the front gates], that was a gut punch,” says Luis*, a fourth-year business student at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Managua, Nicaragua. “It really affected me … because, for me, school had always come first. My university was my everything.”
This summer, Luis was a mere two semesters away from graduating. Now, his future is up in the air.
On August 15, the Nicaraguan government accused the UCA of being a “center of terrorism,” among other charges, and announced that the university wouldbe confiscated and turned over to the State. The next day, officials arrived to remove its name from the front gates. Within the week, the Jesuits who lived on an adjacent property were expelled from their house, not even permitted to take their most basic belongings.
“The university never was a center of terrorism. Our only weapons were our books and our studies,” Luis says.
Trumped up terrorism charges have been one of the most egregious excuses the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have given for the confiscation of the UCA — the 27th university they have seized control of in the past several years, along with over 3000 non-governmental organizations.
The last major bastion of free speech in the country, the UCA has been in the crosshairs of the Nicaraguan government since 2018 when it opened its gates to peaceful protesters seeking refuge from the attacks of government-backed parapolice. Precisely because the university has always been an independent voice in the country, a space where students and staff could express themselves as their conscience dictated, it came under attack.
“Every person there was free to have their own ideas, and because your thoughts are your own, everyone had to respect that,” says Enrique, a friend of Luis who also was on the verge of graduating from the UCA.
Source: ignatiansolidarity.net
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