Nicaragua: More than 700 academics condemn the closure of the Jesuit University

livus, 8 months ago

From the article:

The signatories, including American writer Margareth Randall, professor and theologian Paul DeHart, Brazilian professor Clifford Andrew Welch and former Nicaraguan rector Ernesto Medina, expressed their support for the university authorities, the Society of Jesus and their teachers and students. They called on the academic institutions of the region and the world to “express their active solidarity” with the UCA.

Since December 2021, at least 26 universities have been closed and their assets confiscated in a similar process by order of the Ortega government. Seven of them foreigners.

They pointed out that since 2018, when a student rebellion broke out in Nicaragua, the UCA had been subjected to “systematic slander campaigns” as well as “attacks on its physical facilities” and that its rector and vice-chancellor, Jesuit José Idiáquez and Jorge Huete, had been exiled , in addition to constant budget cuts, they stated.

Ortega called the social revolt a “failed coup” and accused the Catholic Church of sponsoring it along with the political opposition and the United States government. This led to growing tensions and the imprisonment of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was arrested last February and sentenced to 26 years and four months in prison.

The closure of UCA is an “arbitrary measure” and a “clear expression of the disregard for freedoms, quality education, critical thinking and values” that this university promoted, said the letter, which was signed by academics and intellectuals, “the stand up for the right to education”. and academic freedom”.

Asked by the AP, British writer and translator Helen Dixon, another signatory of the letter, said the UCA’s disappearance has astounded European academia, which “can’t believe a government can take over a university’s facilities.” . “.
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Dixon, a professor at the University of Sussex’s Institute of Development Studies, added that Ortega seeks to “suppress any form of critical thinking” by controlling education. “It’s outrageous, a tremendously serious violation of a country’s spiritual life and memory,” said the writer, who taught at UCA in Managua in the 1980s.

He opined that “the Nicaraguan regime is an increasingly apparent dictatorship” and called on “the governments of the world to halt trade and impose severe sanctions” on the Ortega government.

Nicaragua has been in a deep crisis since protests erupted in 2018, with repression by police and paramilitaries leaving at least 355 dead, more than 2,000 injured and around 10,000 displaced in the months following the uprising, according to human rights organizations.