This paid announcement appeared in La Prensa on Dec 22, 2020. Its translation follows.
UCA
Central American University
MESSAGE TO THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY AND THE NICARAGUAN PEOPLE
Cuts in funding and reprisals continue against the Central American University.
In accordance with the values that guide the university work and educational mission of the Central American University (UCA), since the beginning of the social explosion in April 2018 we have called for dialogue and the search for peaceful and democratic solutions to the profound social and political crisis that afflicts the country. Likewise, we have demanded respect for all rights of Nicaraguans, as well as true justice for the people who have suffered the infringement of their rights.
Fidelity to its educational mission, and the promotion of faith and justice, has turned the UCA into an object of multiple damaging remarks, reprisals and harassment from different governmental entities and state bodies, as well as other agents and individuals. These actions have included, among others, ongoing surveillance and police siege of the university campus; illegal judicial findings, refusal to deal with acts of the UCA in state institutions and unjustified omissions or delays in the provision of documents that we require to operate legally.
One of the most damaging actions have come from the National University Council (CNU). Instead of fully respecting the autonomy that the Constitution grants the UCA to carry out its mission, the CNU has contributed to the repression against the University, imposing drastic reductions in the assignment of the state budget to which the UCA has a right as a member of that Council since its founding in 1990 (Law 89 of the Autonomous University). Since 2018 severe reductions have been carried out without offering valid justifications nor explanations. At the same time, resources of the constitutional 6% have been assigned to activities different from those contemplated in the Law.
The budget reductions, which from 2018 to now surpass 60%, have the clear purpose of blocking the work that the UCA carries out in relation to the country and punish its critical position. These reprisals and cuts affect, above all and directly, the most vulnerable of the university community: scholarship students and workers who depend on their salary to sustain their families. The cuts have affected the scholarships of thousands of talented, low-income youth, and the jobs of numerous academic and administrative workers. We profoundly regret these unjust acts against the UCA, which has historically fought for the defense of the budget for higher education, and which has always provided clear accounting for the funds received to the competent institutions and Nicaraguan society.
In spite of the repressive actions described here and others that could come, the UCA will continue demanding that the CNU and the government of Nicaragua redress the harm inflicted on our university community, that critical thinking and academic freedom be respected, and that university autonomy free from any interference be re-established.
As a university affiliated with the Society of Jesus, the Central America University manifests its unbreakable commitment to the noble causes of the Nicaraguan people. The UCA will continue offering an education that promotes critical thinking, and that is at the service of faith and the promotion of justice. It will continue its educational work with dedication – begun in Nicaragua now more than 60 years ago – with the efforts of students, professors and administrative workers, with the accompaniment and solidarity of those of us who believe in justice and freedom in Nicaragua and the world.
Managua, December 21, 2020