Suyen Barahona explains the reasons why the MRS gives up the name “Sandinista”

Suyen Barahona explains the reasons why the MRS gives up the name “Sandinista”

In Confidencial, January 14, 2021 by Franklin Villavicencio

The Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) has decided to do away with one of its symbols that for years was part of its identity. The figure of General Augusto C. Sandino will disappear from its emblem and its name, and from their statutes where he appears as an “inspiration.”  According to their president, Suyen Barahona, this responds to the “urgent demands” of their members. “In both proposals the word “Sandinista” does not appear,” she explained in the television program Esta Noche.

The group in the coming days will decide between calling itself the Democratic Renovation Union (UNAMOS) or the Social Democratic Renovation Movement (Renovemos), leaving aside the symbols that have defined it since its founding in the mid 1990s, after the electoral defeat of the FSLN by the National Opposition Union (UNO).

This change emerged during the IX National Convention of the MRS, that began on January 7, 2021 in Managua. In those sessions members of the group addressed issues like generational succession and also the change in the name of the party, its emblem and article three of its Statutes, that now will be “more inclusive” and remove the name of Sandino as an “inspiration.”

“The name change had to be put on the agenda, and that it be a name that would reflect who we are; a party with open doors, a party with a very diverse membership,” she added.

The voting for this change will culminate on Friday, the day on which the definitive results of the name and emblem will be made known [Jan 15 they made the final decision to be called the Democratic Renovation Union]

In addition to this change, it was made known that the board of directors composed of Luis Carrión, Dora María Téllez, Victor Hugo Tinoco and Hugo Torres, who also are founding members of the party, will retire once their period ends in October 2022.

“It has been their decision, but I think that they have given a great example to the Nicaraguan political class which reflects the internal democracy in this party,” stated Barahona. “They themselves have demonstrated that this is not party of strong men, it is not one where leadership gets locked in.”

A proposal for the nation that touches the Police and the Army

The movement also has addressed a proposal for the nation, that includes the renovation of the police forces and even the abolition of the Army. “Our conviction is that Nicaragua is a very poor country and does not need an Army to defend its sovereignty nor to consolidate its democracy,” argued the politician.

“We propose that a popular consultation is needed about whether the army should remain or be dissolved,” she revealed. To this plan is added the need for a “dissolution” of the current National Police and the founding of a new security body “that would generate trust, that is non partisan and that follows the law.”

Suyen Barahona also mentioned the need for a Truth Commission to investigate the crimes committed in the middle of the century by the Somoza dictatorship, as well as in the stage of the eighties, when the FSLN came to power, and the protests of April 2018, which according to the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) left 327 people murdered by the repression.

“We believe that we share the importance that a special prosecutor be created to investigate the crimes and human rights violations committed by the dictatorship, and we propose that the victims of these violations have to be an active part in those processes,” she added.

They propose “unity” to “get out of the dictatorship”

For this purpose, Barahona states that one should be committed to “coalescing in just one electoral block” that can face the Ortega regime in elections. “It will be very difficult to get out of this dictatorship divided, and we insist that bridges have to continue being built between all the forces that call themselves opponents,” she added.

On their part, the MRS, that forms part of the Blue and White National Unity (UNAB), is committed to remaining in that block which in turn forms part of the [National] Coalition. “We have to coalesce in a great alliance that can generate the support of the majority of the population which is not organized in any organization,” she said.