Masaya:

The department of Masaya was founded in 1883, and was declared the “Cultural Heritage of the Nicaraguan Nation” on October 19, 2016. The city of Masaya was elevated to the rank of city on September 2, 1839. The department has a population of 375,083 inhabitants and the city has 162,868.

Monimbó is recognized as an indigenous people of Masaya, and not just as an “indigenous neighborhood” of Masaya.  They have a cultural identity rooted proudly in their experience as craftspeople, artists, musicians, and dancers, and have fervent religious traditions.  Its people were active in the independence struggle, the National War and the feat of building El Coyotepe. During the war of National Liberation, they were the epicenter of the first anti-Somoza uprising on February 26, 1978.  Nearly 40 years later, they became the symbol of resistance in the civic insurrection that began on April 18, 2018, against the violence and abuses of Daniel Ortega’s government.

The following are some of the relevant events that occurred in the framework of the citizens’ protests of 2018:

April 19: Protests by Monimbó residents began in opposition to the INSS (social security) reforms and were repressed by the police and pro-government groups in the area around Masaya’s Central Park, who used tear gas and rubber bullets against the population. The people of Monimbó erected strategically located protective barricades in the city.

April 20 and 21: The police took possession of the entire block of the Craft Market and scaled up the repression with the use of firearms, leaving the first mortal victims of April, four in the market area and one in the Fátima neighborhood, as well as an undetermined number of wounded.

The five killed are:

• José Abraham Amador, 17 years old.
• Álvaro Gómez Montalván, 23 years old.
• Jairo Mauricio Hernández Useda, 23 years old.
• Javier López, 24 years old.
• Carlos Manuel López.

Over the month of May, protests sprang up in other municipalities of the department of Masaya (Niquinohomo and Catarina), and the protests in Monimbó intensified.

May 30: In the context of Managua’s Mothers Day March, two Nindirí residents were killed by sharpshooters deployed by the police in the area near the UNI and the Dennis Martínez baseball stadium.  In Monimbó an offensive by the police left one dead.  The three are.

• Daniel Josías Reyes Rivera, 25 years old
• Maycol Cipriano González Hernández, 34 years old
• Carlos Manuel Díaz, 20 years old

Throughout June the police and anti-riot forces attacked the city and made several attempts to knock down the barricades, leaving a considerable number of victims.  The population fortified the barricades and organized a “self-government.”  Those killed are:

• Junior Gaitán, 15 years old
• Jeisson Alexander Putoy, 22 years old
• Carlos Erick López López, 23 years old
• Jorge René Zepeda Carrión, 31 years old
• Darwin Ramón Potosme José, 35 years old
• Moisés Campos, of the Santa Rosa neighborhood
• Marvin de los Santos López of El Fox neighborhood
• Marcelo Mayorga, 40 years old.
• Manuel Salvador López Romero, 31 years old.

July 17: Operation Clean-up was carried out in Masaya under the command of Commissioner Ramón Avellán, and after hours of resistance, one death was reported in the 4 Esquinas section of Monimbó.

• Erick Antonio Jiménez López of Monimbó, 34 years old.