Tegucigalpa, ).- The Government of Daniel Ortega informed this Thursday that it will inaugurate this month the «José Coronel Urtecho Cultural and Polytechnic Center, The Past will not return! a building property of the newspaper La Prensa, the oldest in Nicaragua, which was occupied by the authorities almost two years ago.
The wife of President Ortega and Vice President of Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, said through official media that this center will be opened “victorious in April, because peace and goodness have triumphed,” in reference to the anti-government demonstrations that broke out five years ago. and that they were forcibly reduced by the Sandinista Executive.
“Long live peace, we say when inaugurating this center,” emphasized Murillo, who stressed that “it is the first time that there will be such a complete center for the cultural, artistic, technical, and scientific training of families in the neighborhoods of the highway north of our capital.
«In victorious April we say: they could not, nor will they. The past will not return », he stressed.
The Government, through the Attorney General’s Office, handed over on August 23 to the authorities of the National Technological Institute (Inatec) the building owned by La Prensa, founded on March 2, 1926.
THE PRESS HAS REPORTED THE “ROBBERY” OF ITS BUILDING
That newspaper then denounced the “theft” and “actual confiscation” of its industrial plant in Managua, valued at close to 10 million dollars, by the Ortega government.
Murillo said then, in reference to La Prensa, where he worked in the 1970s, that “those places that have been dens for machining crimes against humanity, today are centers for profound spirituality.”
The facilities of La Prensa, located in an industrial area in the north of Managua, have been in the possession of the National Police since August 13, 2021, when the Nicaraguan authorities alleged that the outlet was allegedly used to commit crimes of “customs fraud.” , money laundering, goods and assets”.
Its general manager, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, nephew-in-law of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997) -who defeated Ortega in the 1990 elections-, was sentenced a year ago to 9 years in prison for the crime of ” money laundering”, and was released from prison, sent to the United States and denationalized last February.
La Prensa, which is now only published digitally, has said that the confiscated assets included a $2.01 million rotary printer and a $3.89 million commercial printer, with the capacity to print, bind or gumming, “books, pamphlets, brochures, flyers, and any other printed material, including ballots.”
The newspaper, whose editorial staff was forced into exile in July 2022 after the arrest of two employees, has also warned that the Nicaraguan Constitution, in its article 44, prohibits confiscation, and that the State can only seize property private when those affected are compensated, and that has not been the case.
STATE HAS OCCUPIED TRES MEDIOS BUILDING
La Prensa is the third media outlet whose facilities have been occupied and used by the Ortega government.
The other two are lThe buildings where the digital magazines Confidencial and Niú and the television programs “Esta Semana” and “Esta Noche” were run, directed by the journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, who went into exile and was also denationalized; and the channel 100% News, critical of the Government.
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has worsened after the general elections on November 7, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth in a row and second along with Murillo as vice president, with his main contestants in prison. EFE