In addition to the arrest and abduction of the leading opposition candidates this past week (Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Juan Sebastián Chamorro and Felix Maradiaga), and leading opposition figures Violeta Granera, José Adán Aguerri and José Pallais, this past weekend the dictatorship abducted leaders of the UNAMOS (formerly MRS) party, their current president Suyen Barahona, and former presidents Dora María Téllez and Ana Margarita Vijil, Vice President Hugo Torres, Tamara Dávila and Victor Hugo Tinoco. For those wondering what must the dictatorship be thinking to carry out such actions, one has only to listen to the daily addresses the Vice President and First Lady broadcasts on Sandinista media outlets. This translation is from an excerpt of the address from Thursday June 10th where she clearly dehumanizes the opposition and justifies their treatment invoking religious reasoning.
Declarations of Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua
In Noon Edition of Mulitnoticias Channel 4, June 10, 2021
A very good afternoon, very good afternoon, Dear Families of our Blessed and Always Free Homeland. From Dignity and Respect, Always Free. From the Defense of our Sovereignty, our Independence, Always Free. From the defense of our Identity, our Culture, our Values, Nicaraguans by the Grace of God, we say, and we say it from our hearts and all together: Nicaragua will Always be Free, because it has daughters and sons who love it, daughters and sons who do not sell it out, we daughters and sons who love it, Beautiful as she is, Sovereign as she is and will be.
LOVE FOR NICARAGUA in each one of our Hearts, and Love from our Values, from our Culture of Family and Community, from our Faith, our Love for God, the Love that preaches and that we want to practice every day. Love among us. Love for our Neighbor, and Supreme Mandate of Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace, of Love, of Justice, that Justice that we now are seeing.
So many people are saying: It was about time…! Of course it was about time…! Justice for the Nicaraguan People, Justice that always comes. Late but it comes. It was about time, our People wisely say. It is about time that they respond for all the injustices, for all that continuous slander and denigrating their Country. Can you believe it? And people that at one time were Honorable, at one time; but well, one is Honorable until one wants to be Honorable, and afterwards becomes a vulgar sell out, a vulgar soldier of fortune, those who are paid to sow death, destruction, hate, the hate which is the most serious capital sin, because it attacks the Principles and Values of our Faith: Christianity…!
Christ Jesus, who since I have had the use of reason, and I am sure that since we have, those of us who are alive, the use of reason, we know what reigns, what lives in our Nicaragua, by our Family Practices; Homes, Families, Communities, where we venerate, where we believe, where we know that God is Great, and where we know how to live the Sacred Passion.
It is difficult to be coherent with the Mandates of our Christianity, difficult to be coherent, consistent and walk loving one another, not being indifferent, learning to be in Solidarity and to recognize the Rights of Others, to live without selfishness, live in Love, promote Harmony, Family Values and above all promote Rights for All. And well, “Do not steal” say the Commandments of the Law of God.
Could some Ecclesial Representative approve theft, stealing, the “malicious actions” as our People call them, with the resources that they ask for death, that they ask to spray blood in our Nicaraguan Communities who love Peace, who want Peace. What they ask for, and then joyfully share among themselves, and each one of them attempts, with ridiculous booming voices, to continue instilling hate in our Nicaragua. Ridiculous booming voices because one knows that these loud voices are not doing anything in the face of the Truths, in the face of the Realities, in the face of Justice in particular. They turn into water…they turn into water!
Oh my God, one says every day, you take time, but you do come! And as Christians our Obligation is to not desire evil for anyone, and that is how we live, seeking the Well-being of All. That has been our history, that is the Memory that we have: The Well-being of All, the fight for the Well-being of All, the sacrifice of the Lives of so many thousands of Nicaraguans, for the Well-being of All. So that we might feel ourselves proud of knowing ourselves to be Free, Sovereign and we know we are Patriots.
We were saying, at one time some knew something about Patriotism and Courage, but one is Patriotic and Courageous until one wants, I repeat, and then one can turn into human offal, that causes shame and that remains recorded in History as a National Shame. Because instead of serving the Homeland, serving the People, the Families that have been exploited, subjected, from Extreme Poverty, for so many decades, instead of serving the People so that they might live, because we are going to live with Dignity and Joy, they serve other gods….
Golden calves! Even though there no longer are golden calves. They are tin calves, even plastic ones, that plastic garbage that pollutes our Oceans on our Lands; plastic garbage, calves made of plastic garbage, and more garbage then, those who serve those garbage calves.
What is garbage but pretending to subject a People to the designs of those who have committed the worst outrages of the entire World? Who allowed atomic bombs to fall on innocent Civilians in Japan? Who have sown terror, death, destruction on the entire World, attempting to impose their Values, their Culture, their way of seeing the World, and that sense, also ridiculous, of Power?
Why do we say ridiculous? Because Power, that sense of veneration of something that they call Power, is not just ephemeral or transitory, but True Power is in God, and is in the Peoples of the World. That is True Power. The rest are ridiculous grimaces, and I go back to using the word ridiculous, because they are incredibly ridiculous grimaces, fruit of spiritual ignorance.
When one ignores the Great Truths of Law, of the Commandments of Our Lord God who is the Father of All, when one attempts to ignore it, really it is a Person who does not have neither a Soul, nor Spirit, nor Mind, nor Heart. He does not see beyond the brick or the soil where his feet are for one day.
Everything is happening! Everything is happening! And what prevails? The Good that we do to one another prevails, in addition Spiritual Health prevails, Mental Health. Love prevails! And this is how we live in our Blessed Nicaragua. We live from Love and with Love, we live and we are National Dignity. We live as National Dignity, and we are National Dignity, and we are People who walk, and People who claim the Right to live peacefully.
This is how we live, claiming the Right to our simple, humble, genuine Lives, because we are not Beings who are primped up, wearing make-up, disguised. How many disguises we see, how many people in disguises we know…No, this our People mostly are Genuine, Simple, Humble, Hard working, Strugglers, and how much pride we feel for being part of a Struggling, Hardworking, Honest People.
How many can say, of those who say they feel persecuted today, persecuted by they themselves, persecuted by Justice…Persecuted? Persecuted by they themselves, by their outrages by their crimes…How many of these “dregs” can say they are honorable? Integrity is a Quality and a Gift of God that has to be taken care of every day.
And well, that is how we live, we were saying, struggling, working with Dignity, without disguises. We are how we are: Nicaraguans, Blessed, Strong, Always Dignified, Nicaraguans by the Grace of God!
[address continues with greetings and lists of government actions around the country]