Latin America – Jesuits participated in a peaceful demonstration in Bogotá against the actions of the Nicaraguan government.
On the afternoon of August 30, the community of Bogotá's Centro Interprovincial de Formacion Teologica (CIF), together with other Jesuits and a group of Nicaraguans forced to flee to Colombia, sat in front of the Nicaraguan embassy in Bogotá to peacefully demonstrate against the latest actions of the Nicaraguan dictatorial government led by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
With banners, Nicaraguan flags and various slogans, demonstrators expressed solidarity with the Nicaraguan people and the educational community of the Universidad Centro Americana (UCA), recently confiscated by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship.
At the demonstration, the joint statement of solidarity with the people of Nicaragua was read and signed by Jesuits, the students from Javierana, and exiled Nicaraguans. It communicated: "We want you to know that we, from different parts of the world, and today from Bogotá, will continue to raise our voices, speaking about you in our daily lives, supporting your struggle born of faith, love, care, goodness and kindness, beauty, creativity, science and political organisation; denouncing the dictatorship and just everything that the dictatorship fears so much".
Support for the Jesuits who remain in Nicaragua was also expressed: "We thank our Jesuit brothers and the whole persecuted Church with them for their witness. From their mouths and actions has come forth only the demand for peace and justice that our faith in Jesus Christ requires. Thank you for remaining in your mission. Every act of repression against the Church and a University is a clear sign and promise of truth: the dictatorship will fall soon, not by the force of violence because we do not have it and we do not want it, but because it is a failed project, like stubborn fools wrapped in fear".
During the sit-in, the event leaders left a letter to the Nicaraguan ambassador to Colombia, Milagros del Carmen Urbina Rocha, with seven demands. Among them was a request to reverse the arbitrary and illegal decision on the UCA and the Society of Jesus in Nicaragua, that legitimate defence be allowed and the rule of law restored. It also called for the release of Monsignor Álvarez and all political prisoners arbitrarily detained and the start of a dialogue that reestablishes truth and justice as a condition for peace and the possibility of a peaceful transition to the rule of law and respect for Human Rights.
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