Hundreds of Nicaraguans exiled in Costa Rica participated on Sunday in a caravan against the Ortega regime, in which they demanded freedom and justice in Nicaragua, where government repression has left more than five hundred murdered since April.
The caravan, composed of more than 15 buses and in which more than eight hundred Nicaraguans participated, according to the organizers, left the Plaza de la Democracia in San José and reached La Cruz, about twenty kilometers from the border with Peñas Blancas .
“The message we want to send is not a step back, we move forward, nobody sells or surrenders here,” said María Alejandra Castillo, a university student who was imprisoned in Nicaragua.
After a journey of about three hundred kilometers, on reaching La Cruz, participants marched on foot to the town center demanding the release of political prisoners, justice for the murdered and the cessation of repression against independent media and NGOs.
Because together we are a volcano, Free Homeland or live !, Long live Nicaragua! Freedom for political prisoners !, were some of the slogans shouted by the exiles, who protested with balloons and blue and white flags.
More: Nicaraguans in Costa Rica In Anti-Ortega Border Protest
Some protesters carried photographs of the victims of the repression: murdered, detained and disappeared.
“We are going to come back… We are exiled, but not defeated. Someday we will return to our town,” said another participant.
Nicas in Costa Rica
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) presented a report last November claiming that 40,000 Nicaraguans had requested asylum from the Government of Costa Rica as a result of the repression of the Ortega regime.
The IACHR found that the forced migration of Nicaraguans to Costa Rica began with the so-called “Operation Cleaning” implemented by the Ortega Police, as well as armed para-police forces to dismantle the dams.
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