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OEA/Ser.L/V/II.45 REPORT ON THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN NICARAGUA (Findings
of the “on-site” observation in the
Republic of Nicaragua October
3 – 12, 1978 CHAPTER II RIGHT TO LIFE1 A.
General Considerations
This chapter deals mainly with the events which began on September 9 with
the attack by the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) against
several National Guard detachments. Naturally, this does not imply that note has
not been taken of the numerous complaints received by the Commission of
violations of the right to life prior to that date and which are being processed
according to the normal process. Moreover, given its special seriousness, the
disappearance of numerous peasants in recent years is also considered.
It has been decided, for reasons of clarity, to divide this chapter into
the following categories:
1.
Deaths during combat and serial bombings.
2.
Deaths and other incidents involving Red Cross personnel.
3.
Deaths during the so-called “Operation Mop-Up”.
4.
Deaths after the cessation of hostilities.
5.
Disappearance of peasants. B.
Deaths during Combat and Bombings
After the start of the armed struggle on Saturday, September 9, several
days of intense combat took place in the major cities of Nicaragua. As happens
in every armed conflict of such magnitude, both sides, the National Guard and
the Sandinista Front, suffered loss of life and a considerable number of
wounded.2
The losses occurred as a result of street fighting, and the employment of aerial
bombardment and heavy artillery by the National Guard.
The Commission deplores the loss of any human life, notwithstanding the
circumstances. But, at the same time, it is evident that with regard to this
fundamental right to life, the contending parties have the duty of respecting
the unarmed population which is unable to protect itself. Such duty, as will be
explained in this section, was not observed by the National Guard.
Moreover, the Government of Nicaragua assumed the solemn obligation of
respecting international norms of humanitarian law, especially those set forth
in the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians in Time of War, signed
on August 12, 1949, which is also applicable in armed conflicts not of an
international character,3
and which Nicaragua ratified on December 17, 1953.4
Before its arrival in Nicaragua, the Commission received numerous
allegations of a large number of deaths and injuries and significant material
loss among the civilian population due to the indiscriminate use by the National
Guard of serial bombardment and heavy artillery. In order to investigate these
very serious allegations, shortly after its arrival the Commission visited the
cities most affected by combat—Estelí, León, Masaya, Jinotepe and Chinandega.
The Commission closely inspected different neighborhoods in each of these
cities, speaking directly with people who lived there and visiting their homes.
Through the abundant and irrefutable proof in its possession, it was able to
confirm the magnitude of the destruction caused by serial bombardment and heavy
artillery.
The Commission is totally convinced that the Nicaraguan National Guard
not only used its firepower indiscriminately causing a great number of
casualties and tremendous suffering to the civilian population, but that it also
ordered the people to remain inside their homes before the bombing, without even
allowing them to evacuate, thus violating a basic humanitarian norm.
We quote from some of the numerous cases received, to illustrate this
affirmation. It is important to point out that the Commission investigated a
large number of these cases by visiting the sites where these events took place.
In Chinandega, the Special Commission received the following testimony:
It was Thursday, September 14, when the airplanes began to strafe our
houses in Barrio La Libertad. My husband, my 5 year old daughter and I were
crouched in a corner of our house, crying and thinking that we would die right
then and there because the bullets and shrapnel were destroying our small wooden
house. We decided to go out and seek shelter in a safe place; we left by the
kitchen, my husband with our daughter in his arms. A plane flew very low, it
seemed as if it was coming straight at us, and fired some rockets which hit my
daughter's shoulder and my husband who was carrying her. Everywhere I looked I
could see the heart and intestines of my child; she was in pieces, destroyed. My
husband, who had already lost his arms, took about thirty steps, with blood
spouting every where, until he fell dead. He had a wound in the chest; he had a
part of a still-smoking rocket stuck in his leg. The left leg was bare to the
bone. I
wanted to lift my child but she was in pieces; I didn't know what to do. I ran
and I got her little arm and I tried to put it on her, I tried to put everything
that was coming out of her back in but she was already dead. She was my only
daughter, and I had a difficult time having her; and I used to dress her up for
parties and spoil her. I don't know what I'm going to do, I'm going to go crazy. A
September 28 report from a parochial school in the city of León states: Day
13, Wednesday: In the morning, an airplane of the Nicaraguan Air Force (FAN)
strafes León and in the afternoon the city is bombed with rockets from the Fortín
de Acosasco, which dominates the southwestern part of the city. The number of
refugees is over one thousand; even the chapel is used. Day
14, Thursday: At 5 a.m. the first child is born in the dispensary. At
mid-morning a female student of the “Manuel Ignacio Lacayo” school is killed
in her own house by a bomb dropped from a FAN helicopter; like the many other
dead from Subtiava (a neighborhood in León) she is buried in the garden of the
house. Around 2:30 p.m., a reconnaissance aircraft announces that the National
Guard is going to carry out a “military operation,” that no one should open
their doors to the “bloodthirsty communists” since the National Guard will
not be responsible for what might happen. At 5 p.m. the bombing, the artillery,
the endless shooting, and the fires begin. Electricity is cut off and we are
left without water. People sleep crowded together. The crying children lend a
pathetic note.
A well-known professional association from León presented a document to
the Commission which in part states the following: On
Thursday the 14th, early in the morning, we heard on the radio about
the suspension, decreed by the government, of all constitutional rights and the
implantation of the State of Siege. The army announced through loudspeakers in
an airplane and a helicopter that people should remain in their houses with the
doors locked and not allow strangers in because the National Guard was going to
fight. There had been rumors that the President was going to order the bombing
of the city but no one had believed such rumors since we didn't consider that a
person could do such a thing, that an army would bomb its own people;
nevertheless, at around 9 in the morning, several helicopters and planes, it's
impossible to say how many, flew over the city and to the surprise and terror of
the people of León, the impossible happened. The airplanes and helicopters
suddenly dived and started to drop shrapnel, bombs and rockets which spread
panic among the civilian population. While the civilians remained inside their
houses, innocent victims of the massacre, the insurgents moved to more secure
places. For many more hours, the National Guard continued the destruction and
genocide of this unprotected city. After a brief period of respite, at noon, the
stunned population was victimized by another bombing which started around 4:30
in the afternoon and ended around 7:30 in the evening. The moon illuminated the
city and facilitated the continuation of the bombing during the first hours of
the night.
The Commission was able to confirm that Estelí was the city which
suffered the greatest material damage. But, above all, it was at the human level
where there was the most devastation. The Special Commission was able to confirm
that a large number of people from Estelí, especially members of the Bar
Association, Medical Society, Chamber of Commerce, Red Cross, Dental Association
and firemen, priests, journalists and workers, were dead, wounded, imprisoned,
in asylum or in exile, harassed or threatened with death.
In a document presented to the Commission by a professional association,
the events in Estelí are narrated in the following way:
On September 11, Martial Law is imposed and constitutional rights are
suspended. All communications are broken. The National Guard command post is
surrounded. The population erects barricades in the streets. The Air Force
(National Guard) goes into action, bombing the Calvario, San Antonio and José
Benito Escobar neighborhoods, killing many civilians. The city is still in the
hands of insurgents. The confrontations leave an estimated 40 people killed. The
civilian population begins to loot some stores.
Fleeing the destruction caused by the bombings, a large part of the
people seek refuge in first aid posts located in the more solidly constructed
buildings. The Red Cross is constantly harassed, several corpsmen are wounded,
ambulances are machine-gunned. The wounded are forcibly taken to the National
Guard and then shot.
On the 17th there is no electricity or water, and the city is
completely isolated; food and medicine are scarce.
The exact number of unburied dead in the streets and houses destroyed by
the aerial bombings and tanks is unknown.
It is estimated that the National Guard in Estelí during that period was
made up of at least 1,200 men, with heavy weapons and tanks, plus the permanent
support of six National Guard combat planes.
On September 20, there are hundreds of dead in the streets and in houses.
The National Guard has the city surrounded and prohibits any going in or out.
Some families are able to escape by leaving the destroyed city by means of paths
to the mountains.
The National Guard ordered the population of several neighborhoods to
abandon their houses so they could be searched. Witnesses say the systematic
looting that the Guard carried out before finally burning down their homes.
After the heavy attack of the previous day several buildings are
completely or partially destroyed, among them the Bank of America, the El
Calvario Church, the Inmobiliaria building and many other houses hit by the
bombing. Numerous civilians are wounded or killed.
In spite of the heavy serial attack, there is still strong resistance.
More people try to find a way to abandon the burning city. The National Guard
plans to attack the hospital and the Nuestra Señora del Rosario School which is
being used as a shelter for more than 4,000 people, mostly women, children, the
elderly, and Red Cross personnel.
The National Guard “officially” declares that there are more than 90
dead among the civilian “attackers”. Entrance to the city is forbidden to
all journalists who do not have an order signed by a high-ranking member of the
National Guard.
A group of priests, doctors, educators, professionals and ranchers of
Estelí signed on September 18—before the events had ended in that city—the
following statement: After
knowing the results of the first day, that the dead and wounded were not mostly
insurgents but civilians who could not be attended to, we tried to send an S.O.S.
to the outside world to avoid more bloodshed on both sides. We were completely
isolated and with only the internal communication of a telephone which was still
working, we spoke with the Departmental Commander. We wanted to bury bodies and
to tend to the different needs of the people, something which had been ignored.
Ham radio operators, who had been able to cooperate to some extent, had sent a
few messages to the world before they were censored. On
Monday the 11th, Tuesday the 12, Wednesday the 13th and
Thursday the 14th, there was fighting within and around the city
between the two groups, with the National Guard using tanks and heavy weapons
against all houses suspected of sheltering rebel fighters. On
Friday the 15th, Saturday the 16th and Sunday the 17th
early in the morning, Air Force planes began to fly over the city, and minutes
later they started an aerial strafing, while the National Guard, it seems,
advanced on land. The aerial attack intensified on the population which was
looking for shelter. The people had been placed in improvised first aid
stations, since the houses in the city, due to their zinc or tile roofs and
brick or wood construction, are completely inadequate to protect their
inhabitants from the land and air attacks to which Estelí has been subjected. Knowing
that a large number of the dead and wounded were civilians, not part of the
fighting groups, some were cared for in improvised first aid stations, clinics
and the hospital, all of which were operating with great difficulty. The Red
Cross and volunteers have had to give aid under great risk, because there has
been no truce and the neutrality emblems of the Red Cross have not been
respected. Members of the National Guard have gone so far as wounding
volunteers, machine-gunning ambulances and shooting the wounded.
Some complaints of individual cases received by the Special Commission in
the city of Estelí state the following:
Mrs. Reyna Gutiérrez, who had two infant twin sons, was a humble woman
of no means, completely removed from political matters. She had her children in
her arms when she was machine-gunned by the plane. This woman was approximately
30 years old, very poor and lived in a wooden house, helpless and without food. -o- Mrs.
Ana López was also killed with a bible in her hand, begging God for clemency,
and there she was hit by a bomb from the airplane that bombed this city eight
hours a day, with the intention of killing all the people. -o- I
was sheltered in a neighboring house, which was attacked by rockets from the
government planes. Mrs. Ruth Games de Valencia was wounded by a rocket and
operated on in the hospital where they extracted part of a rocket that weighed
one pound, two ounces. Her two young girls were also wounded. Her husband was
wounded in the forehead. A
nurse who was also wounded was taken by the Red Cross to Managua. -o- My
house was burned in the presence of my husband and children. We begged the guard
not to burn it down but he answered that he had orders from his superiors to
burn “this fucking town”. We took the car out and then the tank and the
machine guns turned on it and the car burst into flames. Thank God we are alive
because we dragged ourselves and we crawled under the flames; our jeep was also
set on fire. My husband is fleeing from town to town because there is a warrant
out for his arrest because he is a militant of the F.A.O. (Broad Opposition
Front), but he doesn't approve of the armed struggle; his struggle is civil
resistance. My family and I only have the clothes on our backs. I'm now living
in the house of a good-hearted friend and she gives us food. My house was on a
corner near the Cathedral. -o- The
planes also burned the houses. The Guard also went around with gasoline cans and
started fires. It was horrible. All of us were sick with nervousness. We lived
horrible days. Twenty-one days of anguish and terror, without water,
electricity, or food. The Guard arrived at the house where we were sheltered and
started to search. It's incredible that the Guard took the jewelry right off of
me. C.
Deaths of Red Cross Personnel
On September 14, the Nicaraguan Red Cross sent a convoy with medicine and
food from Managua to Chinandega in answer to a request for help from that city.
The convoy was made up of an ambulance with medicines, occupied by Dr. Lepoldo
Navarro, Secretary General of the Institution and Director of the Medical
Department, and two members of the permanent staff, and a pickup truck—unit
38—with food, occupied by two volunteers, José Dolores Estrada Granizo and
Marvin Alberto Flores Salazar. Both vehicles were identified with Red Cross
emblems and flags.
The Nicaraguan Red Cross of what happened during that trip: The
necessary authorization from the President of the Republic for the mission had
been obtained. I received a photocopy of this document and at 14:00 hours we
started our trip toward León. We took the old road and experienced no delays.
At approximately 15:15 hours we arrived at the crossroad of the Leon-Chinandega
highway, approximately at kilometer 90, where a National Guard patrol prevented
us from going through. The officer informed us that we could not go any further
because “the situation is uncomfortable”. I showed the Government
authorization and the officer told me that despite the authorization it was
impossible to continue as he had recently received order to the contrary. I
instructed unit 38 to follow me and I started back to Managua. At
approximately kilometer 78 of the León-Managua highway I encountered a military
convoy made up of three large jeeps of the National Guard, with personnel and
weapons. I told the driver to slow down and the convoy went by. Moments later,
the driver told me that he had lost sight of unit 38, which had been right
behind us. I called the unit three times by radio and when I didn't get an
answer, I told the driver to stop and I ordered him to return to León to see
what had happened. After some two kilometers we saw our unit parked on the
highway with the windows broken and splattered with blood. We stopped 30 meters
away and there was nobody in the pickup. I
though that the military convoy had taken them prisoners so I decided to return
to Managua and report what had happened. When
we started toward Managua, at approximately 200 meters from our machine-gunned
pickup, a helicopter appeared and shot a burst of bullets. I ordered the driver
to slow down because I thought that the aggression was directed against us. The
helicopter swept by once again and strafed two more times making the leaves in
the nearby trees fly. I immediately got out and signaled with a Red Cross flag.
The helicopter continued to fly in circles over us, but without shooting, until
a National Guard patrol from León made up of two vehicles and approximately 20
National Guardsmen arrived. They got out and aimed their weapons at us and
ordered two members of the patrol to get in the ambulance with orders to shoot
the driver and then the old man (Dr. Navarro) at the least sign of hostility and
told us that we were under arrest and would be taken to León. When we passed in
front of unit 38 I asked the driver to slow down and we could see that the
volunteers were in the front seat, dead or wounded, one on top of the other. The
driver said that both were probably dead. At
that time two patrols from León arrived, stopped us and ordered the vehicle
searched. One of the members of the patrol said that a Lieutenant had been shot
and wounded by our vehicle while another said that he had been killed. A search
turned up only food and medicine. We
were authorized to return to Managua and one of the enlisted men said softly
that “it had been a big mistake”. I asked if we could take to Managua our
two companions who had already been confirmed dead and when we received consent,
we proceeded to move the bodies of the volunteers José Dolores Estrada Granizo
and Marvin Alberto Flores Salazar, whose head was destroyed by the bullets, from
the pickup to the ambulance. We decided to leave the pickup on the road until
further orders, and we started toward Managua reaching our base at approximately
17:30 hours without any delays, where we found a great commotion due to the
events.
The Commission has in its possession several photographs of the pickup
and the bodies of the corpsmen. These photographs show more than 70 bullet
holes, some of them of high caliber, in the pickup. The bodies were very
mutilated.
The Commission also has a tape recording of this incident in its
possession, and which it deems sufficiently important to transcribe in its
entirety due to its relevance. The dialogue of two people, Colonel Humberto
Corrales, Chief of Staff and Major Anastasio Somoza, son of President Somoza and
Director of the School of Basic Infantry Training (EEBI). Major Somoza was at
that time in the city of León, commanding his troops and in charge of the
mop-up operation in that city, according to information received. The dialogue:
Col. Corrales:
Listen, I'm calling because there is a “hangup” and I want to know
what happened, so I can know that to invent.
Major Somoza
Aha, what's the hangup?
Col. Corrales:
A helicopter attacked a Red Cross pickup, the one I told your command
that was going through, then they returned to Managua, in a convoy in which one
part was going to León and the other to Chinandega. When they were returning a
helicopter attacked them and killed two in the Red Cross pickup. You hadn't been
informed about that?
Major Somoza:
What we were told was that ambulance N° 18 of the firemen, right?, had
been stolen by those people.
Col. Corrales:
Yes, but no, but the ambulance was not number 18 or anything, but it was
the pickup, Tacho, a Red Cross pickup.
Major Somoza:
What happened there was that the people came from León, came from
Managua, right?
Col. Corrales:
Yes.
Major Somoza:
And then, I had heard the thing about the ambulance, that was going to
Managua, then they saw the two vehicles together and then they opened fire, they
didn't hit the ambulance, they hit the pickup.
Col. Corrales:
But I reported that that convoy was going, Tacho?
Major Somoza:
I knew nothing.
Col. Corrales:
Listen, I called Riviera personally and told him: Inform Major Somoza
because we must advise the Guard posts, they got as far as the entrance of León
without any problem, Tacho?
Major Somoza:
Yeah, there I turned them back.
Col. Corrales:
That's it, that is to say everyone knew, I informed Captain Riviera to
inform you that those people were going, so that you could inform the Guard
posts that they were authorized.
Major Somoza:
The Guard posts didn't shoot at them, the ones who shot were...
Col. Corrales:
No, I know, but now I want to know what happened? Why did they shoot?
Because they have called me, and they have stuck me with this fucking hang-up.
Major Somoza:
Just simply tell them that in León, right?
Col. Corrales:
Yes...
Major Somoza:
They had stolen the ambulance.
Col. Corrales:
Yes...
Major Somoza:
You got the report that they had stolen the ambulance of the firemen.
Col. Corrales:
Yeah!
Major Somoza:
And that then the firemen's ambulance was going to Managua and then they
were caught by the patrol that was coming here, do you understand?
Col. Corrales:
Sonofabitch, hello (interruption)
Major Somoza:
Right? Then when they saw the ambulance go boy...
Col. Corrales:
Then, what I'm going to tell them is that the patrol didn't think they
were coming back so soon and so quickly.
Major Somoza:
Because the patrol didn't know who they were, what happens is that when
the León Command sent the news, saying that an ambulance had been stolen and
had been taken over by a group of guerrillas.
Col. Corrales:
All right. (English).
Major Somoza:
Do you understand?
Col. Corrales:
Okay.
Major Somoza:
When the patrol found it, do you understand, they let the ambulance
through and since the vehicles were together then they hit the one in the back?
Col. Corrales:
Okay.
Major Somoza:
Do you understand? You say that the ambulance was stolen with two dead
guards, then León broadcast that, and it was heard by the patrol that was
coming from there to here?
Col. Corrales:
Yes.
Major Somoza:
And then, thank God, they didn't hit the ambulance, but the pickup in the
back was screwed, do you understand?
Col. Corrales:
No, but in the pickup that was from the Red Cross, two died.
Major Somoza:
That's correct, that's why the ambulance went through and when they saw
the ambulance go by they said, there it goes! And then the forward part of the
convoy shot at the one in the back, and then, the pickup accelerated, ambulance
that is, and then they opened fire, do you understand?
Col. Corrales:
Good.
Major Somoza:
It was the patrol.
Col. Corrales:
All right. (English)
Major Somoza:
It isn't the helicopters that are attacking, but ones that the León
Command reported by radio that they had stolen an ambulance. Was the pickup
blue?
Col. Corrales:
Yes, it was blue.
Major Somoza:
Okay, because they also said that there was a blue pickup that was
carrying people from the guerrillas, do you understand? Now I know that it was a
blue Datsun pickup?
Col. Corrales:
Yes.
Major Somoza:
But they didn't hear Datsun or anything, they heard about the ambulance.
Col. Corrales:
That's correct.
Major Somoza:
They put two and two together and bang!
Col. Corrales:
I'm going to call Mr. Chevalley right now?
Major Somoza:
Tell them then, that I'm very sorry but, don't tell them that I'm very
sorry, all right?
Col. Corrales:
No, not me, I don't have to say who it is. I have to say that I spoke
with the operations commander.
Major Somoza:
Exactly, no? and tell them, that the León Command broadcast the news.
Col. Corrales:
Okay.
Major Somoza:
That a blue pickup and an ambulance were going.
Col. Corrales:
Because they have been bugging me from the moment it happened and I told
him, look, I can't because everyone is fighting here, right? I can't interrupt
the network because of what happened; I promise you to have an investigation and
tell you exactly what happened. You can be completely sure that there must be
something very strange for something like that to have happened, see?
Major Somoza:
No, we already made friends with the Red Cross, but tell them that the
guerrillas insist on using Red Cross ambulances.
Col.
Corrales:
Okay, perfect.
Major
Somoza:
Do you hear?
Col. Corrales:
All right, Tacho (English), listen, I wish you luck, be careful and don't
go fucking around, do you hear?
Major Somoza:
Forget it, today my girl stopped nearby.
Col. Corrales:
Well then, don't be a fool.
Major Somoza:
Okay.
This dialogue essentially confirm the account of the Nicaraguan Red Cross
and moreover, that the National Guard was well informed about the existence and
itinerary of the Red Cross convoy. Therefore the attack is inexcusable. The
version of the events invented by Major Somoza in his dialogue with Colonel
Corrales is another example of the lack of respect of the National Guard for the
Red Cross, its members and its humanitarian activities.
The Commission also has reports on two volunteers wounded in Chinandega
who were denied medical attention. Likewise, the Special Commission was informed
that in January or February 1978 a Red Cross ambulance that was carrying a sick
child, his mother and a volunteer was machine-gunned by Guards from the Fortín
de la Pólvora. Also it was informed that Public Health and the Vélez Páiz
Hospital in Managua have ambulances that have a painted Red Cross Emblem and
that in the barrio OPEN N° 3 government ambulances with the Red Cross emblem
were used to transport soldiers, thus creating suspicion and confusion in the
population with respect to the Red Cross. In Estelí a wounded person that was
being attended to by the Red Cross was killed while on a stretcher. In Diriamba
the National Guard beat up four volunteers and stole the money they were
carrying. D.
Deaths immediately after the bombings during the so-called
“Operation Mop-up”
When the bombings were over, the National Guard carried out a military
operation, which has come to be known as “Operation Mop-up,” designed to
annihilate the last pockets of resistance. According to complaints received by
the Special Commission even before they went to Nicaragua, the National Guard
during this phase carried out a cruel attack summarily executing numerous
non-combatants, for the mere fact that they lived in neighborhoods or small
hamlets where members of the Sandinista Front had fought. Among some of the
places mentioned are Monimbó in Masaya, Subtiava and Fajas William in León, El
Calvario in Estelí, and Colonia Venerio in Chinandega.
As has been mentioned in other parts of this report, the Commission
visited all these places, speaking with the residents of the affected areas and
contacting relatives and neighbors of the people whose deaths have been
denounced. Likewise, it visited different sites where all evidence confirms the
fact that in those places there are shallow mass graves.
All the proof gathered by the Commission has led to the conclusion that
the Nicaraguan National Guard's actions during the phase called “Operation
Mop-up” were marked by complete disregard for human life, that they shot
numerous people, in some cases children, in their own homes or in front of the
same and in the presence of parents and siblings.
There follows an account, by way of example, of some of these complaints.
In Matagalpa, where the insurrection started at the end of August, during
the height of “Operation Mop-up” one or several combatants of the Sandinista
Front, who were fleeing members of the National Guard, entered through the main
door of the Hotel Soza of that city, and immediately went out the back. Shortly
afterwards the soldiers arrived, and the complainant, the only survivor of the
events, gives the following account:
On August 30, at approximately 11:30 in the morning in Matagalpa, some
thirty soldiers shot their way into my house, known as “Hotel Soza,” and
said they belong to the EEBI, and ordered all of us in the house towards the
back, with our hands in the air, in the direction of the principal room in the
house. In the house there was my elderly mother, Tina Arauz de Soza, my
brother-in-law Harold Miranda, the maid Nubia Montegro, and a guest, Alfredo
Lacayo Amador, and the undersigned. As they were coming out they were also being
machine-gunned. I was behind my mother and I jumped to the neighboring house and
I was able to hide in the trash bin, hidden by the body of my mother.
I spent the whole day hidden in the trash bin, that is 24 hours, hiding
behind some rotten beams a few feet from the soldiers who continued shooting to
break down the doors. I could hear them shouting “there were five, where is
the other one?”
And I could see how my mother was butchered after they machine-gunned
her, opening her abdomen with a bayonet. My brother-in-law had his genitals cut
off and put in his mouth.
They took my mother's clothes, my brother-in-law's watch and even the
keys to his car. And from the house they took about 8,000 Córdobas ($1,143)
that my mother had hidden under a mattress. After having looted the whole house
and not finding any guerrillas or weapons, a member of the guard said, “We
screwed them for the fun of it.”
I was able to leave that day helped by some friends who brought some
nurse's clothes so I wouldn't be recognized. A few days later an order of
massive arrest was received by the Commander of Police of San Dionisio, where my
father was, against the whole Soza family.
Before they came to get us, my father took us to another place.
In Masaya the Special Commission received the following testimonies
regarding “Operation Mop-up.”
On September 9, 1978 the Sandinista Front entered the town of Masaya, and
completely took over the city. On September 11 the National Guard came with a
tank to bomb the house. It was rendered completely uninhabitable; in that same
house Mrs. María Sequeira and her 1-1/2 year old son, which she had in her
arms, lost their lives. After bombing the house and killing Mrs. Sequeira, they
immediately went to a shop belonging to Mrs. Sequeira, a bar, drinking all the
beer. -
o –
On September 11, members of the National Guard dragged Mario and Alcides
López from their house at two in the afternoon, and beat them. They took them
away and the following day they were found about three blocks away, shot to
death.
They took all their clothes and the little money they had. They weren't
armed, they were only in their houses with their wives and their six small
children, protecting themselves from the shooting that was taking place. -
o - |