In spite of the key role young people played in the uprising of April 2018, and the number imprisoned time and again for their participation, their stories receive less press coverage. This is an interview of a young person whose months old son was killed by a police bullet.
Nelson Lorío: “I regret having gone to work the day that they killed my son”
In La Prensa, January 3, 2021 by Julian Navarrete
Alongside the land where his 14-month baby is buried, Nelson Lorío remained crouched in silence. The day before, June 23 , 2018, police and paramilitaries – it is difficult to be certain because all were hooded – shot him during an operation to remove blockades in a neighborhood of Managua, placed by rebels to pressure the regime of Daniel Ortega.
“The bullet was for me,” says Nelson Lorío in this interview, more than two years from that day, when he did not want to say one word. Now, on the contrary, he is one of the few fathers or relatives of people killed during the violent events of 2018 who are organizing to continue demanding justice for their children. “With these authorities I know that I cannot get justice, but with a future government, I will,” he stated.
From a place where he works as a caretaker, Nelson Lorío speaks in this interview about the more than two years that he has lived without his son, the harassment of the Police that made his used clothing store fail, his participation in protests and the hope for a change in government in this New Year.
What did you do before April 2018?
I was independent. I was able to generate income. I bought my home before my son was born. But in April 2018 I saw the videos about how in León the mobs were attacking the elderly and that bothered me a lot. It reminded me of my parents.
What was your participation in the rebellion?
I got involved in this starting on April 19, 2018. I saw Darwin Urbina, a neighbor of mine, die from a bullet in the neck. How was I not going to be outraged? Since then, I have not stopped my struggle. I was close by and I saw the burning of the house in the Carlos Marx neighborhood. That day I returned home destroyed by seeing how the bodies of the children were burned. I came home to hug my children and I told my Mom and my wife that I was not going to continue the struggle for my children. Sadly, my tragedy happened within weeks.
Do you think that bullet was for you?
That shot was specifically for me, because my four brothers and I were involved in the rebellion, without covering our faces or anything, because we were not doing anything bad. I know that that bullet was for me. The regime is psychopathic, it hits you where it hurts you the most, which in my case was my son.
Are you regretful of anything?
Of having left that day in the morning. I would have preferred to not go to work. That is the only thing that I regret. That is what I think, and it affects me a lot. Because I had plans to celebrate Father´s Day with my son. That day I had to work.
Why did you and your family go into exile?
Because of the constant persecution directed at me and my wife. My family insisted that I leave and since the manhunt was against youth, then I had to leave, I left first for Costa Rica in August of 2018. In a month they began to send citations to my home for my wife to show up at the Police station. So, I asked a person to help me so she could leave as well. She arrived in November 2018.
Why were they citing her?
Supposedly because they had now located those who killed my son. My father showed up once. That day they told him that the killers of my son were in exile, that they were youth who were protesting in the UPOLI. But the person who knows the true story is me, who was in the street that day, where they were the only other people there.
Who are “they”, paramilitaries or police?
In that context you never knew whether it was police in civilian clothing or paramilitaries, or even members of the Army itself. Because I saw that they had Army weapons and there is evidence of the use of Dragunovs [sharpshooter rifle].
Do you believe there is evidence to find those who are guilty?
I believe that there is. What happens is that people do not want to talk out of fear. In addition, there are lists of the famous clean-up plan by district, where there are names. Maybe they have now destroyed them. But I think that when the moment arrives, they are going to talk. In the end they are human and know what they did to a baby only months old.
What response did the State give in the face of the death of Teyler?
The truth is that I am not expecting a response from this Government, because we know that they are the criminals themselves. There has been no resolution because we know that the power of the State is in El Carmen (where Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo live). I am going to present my denouncement to a new government to accuse Ortega, the Police and the Army.
Have the authorities looked for you?
They have looked for us, but to harass us, to intimidate us. But to look for us to solve the case, no. Only to cause us more harm.
Is there some way for you to feel satisfied?
They would have to find those who are guilty. It will not give me peace, but I am going to feel better about the fact that these criminals are not going to be walking around loose in the streets, committing other crimes. Because they continue armed, committing crimes in the streets. Since they have a license to kill, no one says anything to them. I would feel better when all the criminals are in jails. Because I do not feel safe for my daughter to be in the street.
Why did you return from Costa Rica?
There is no work there. Exile is very hard. Whole families sleep in the parks, they have nowhere to sleep. I did not have the need to sleep in the streets because there were organizations that helped me, but it was difficult for me to get work. But I also returned because it was in Nicaragua that they killed my son, and we wanted to be close to the tomb of my son. We returned through the border in October 2019. We did not come back to hide.
Do they continue harassing you?
Constantly, I am one of the few parents (of children murdered in the repression of 2018) who are out active in the organizations of the opposition. I feel like I am a young person who needs to fight, because I do not want to leave my daughter four more years of suffering. I want this to end so that my daughter can grow up in a free and democratic country.
What are you doing to prevent this?
I am involved with the families of the victims, and I am raising their awareness. That they do not forget that blood that their children shed. Some say that they are afraid to go out. They sit with their arms crossed because of the economic situation, but I tell them that April 18 (2018) we took to the streets without them giving us money, we did it out of love for Nicaragua. I am organizing a group of Whatsapp to raise our voices, because the Association of the Mothers of April (AMA) is dormant, and I do not like that.
Why are you one of the few relatives who continue demanding justice for your children?
Most of the relatives are older people, very afraid. They are not people who are going to be involved in pickets or meetings. I think that it is because of my age and because I want to continue until we celebrate a Christmas without Daniel Ortega.
Did you at one time support the Sandinista Front?
Yes, I voted in 2006 for them to return to power. All of us were mistaken and we don´t have to make that same mistake again. I see disenchantment in the party itself, that now is being controlled by two elderly people and their parasitic children.
What political organization do you belong to?
The Peasant Movement, an organization that started in 2013 in the fight to defend their land. It is a sector that has suffered a lot and has been forgotten by the current government and those that have passed. It is a sector that has been beaten up a lot and I am organized there.
How far will your struggle go?
I do not want to be a politician. I want to be a social activist. We have to continue here, because there are things that we have to see and repair. We need fresh ideas, so that this country not be the poorest of Central America.
Seeing so many divisions in the opposition, how do you have hope for a peaceful electoral outcome?
My hope is that a leader in the opposition comes out of this uprising. People are just hoping that this procession has a saint to vote for. We are going to demonstrate that we can overthrow him without weapons, only with a pen to mark our vote. We hope that the sectors that say they have leadership place their interests to one side, because we the people down below, we do not have any other interest than seeing our nation grow. I do not have interest in any post nor anything like that, only in a better country.
After more than two years since the rebellion occurred, have you not gotten discouraged?
Discouragement is part of the work that Orteguism is doing. They try to say that they killed our children for some interests, but no, my motivation is high, I have high hopes. I am not going to stop, I am going to continue organizing and fighting. Things happened here which we have to talk about. Not necessarily behind a telephone, crying. No, the struggle has to continue in the streets. We cannot say in a video that we are going to take to the streets and not do so. We have to organize for any event.
Personal plane
Nelso Lorío is 35 years of age.
His is married to Karina Navarrete, the mother of his two children, Joshuara and Teyler, who was killed in 2018.
He met his wife in a park close to the UPOLI nearly 10 years ago.
He has been working since the age of 16. He has worked in construction, as a cleaner and a gas station attendant.
He reached the third year of high school.
With his children he used to like to sightsee in the provinces of the country.
Currently he lives with his mother because his home was flooded by the two hurricanes that hit Nicaragua, Eta and Iota.