Jinotega

The department of Jinotega has an estimated population of 452,973 inhabitants and is organized into the following municipalities:  Jinotega, Cuá-Bocay, La Concordia, San Rafael del Norte, San Sebastián de Yalí, Santa María de Pantasma and Wiwilí.

The protest scenes of April 2018 were in the departmental capital of Jinotega City, where demonstrations against the INSS (social security) reforms took place on April 19, 20 and 21.  On June 5, part of the Municipal Government building in El Cuá was intentionally set fire by hooded and armed subjects who also sacked the offices.  The population erected barricades.

June 7: Paramilitaries armed with weapons of war took control of the municipality and attacked the Sandino neighborhood, leaving one dead and several wounded.

• Abraham Antonio Castro Jarquín, 15 years old.

June 10: The population erected 25 barricades in the city’s urban center.

June 24: A young man speaking in the city center in the evening hours was shot in the neck by hooded subjects, killing him.  He had led others in painting blue and white graffiti, as part of the citizenry’s resistance.

• Winston Cornejo, 18 years old.

July 16: An agreement was reached between mayors and the Army to take down the barricades.

July 23-24:  “Operation Clean-up” was launched in the Sandino neighborhood, causing 3 deaths.

• Benito González Rodríguez, 30 years old
• Bryan Picado, de 22 years old
• Leything Pérez, 16 years old

October 7: The Wiwilí mayor’s legal adviser was intercepted by paramilitaries and shot multiple times.

Oscar Noel Herrera, 42 years old.

In the first half of 2019 the violence intensified in rural areas, and in the municipality of El Cuá a coffee grower was ambushed by paramilitaries carrying firearms.  In the border zone with Honduras, ambushes against former members of the “contras” left the following victims: 

• Oliver José Montenegro, 44 years old
• Edgardo Aristo Montenegro Centeno, 53 years old
• Yalmar Antonio Zeledón, 31 years old
• José Francisco García Sobalbarro, exiled in Honduras, killed by armed subjects who broke into his home.