University closures in Nicaragua
Monday, February 21, 2022
Victor Martell
From Nicaragua comes far-fetched news that borders on the absurd. The Ortega-Murillo dictatorship announced the cancellation of the juridical personalities of five private universities located in different regions of the country: the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua (UPOLI); the Catholic University of Dry Tropic Farming and Livestock (UCATSE); the Paulo Freire University (UPF); the Popular University of Nicaragua (UPONIC); and the University of Humanistic Studies (UNEH). All join the Spanish American University (UHISPAM), for a total of six universities.
With the closure of these private universities, the dictatorship intends to guarantee the existence of only the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN), an institution that is not autonomous at all, and where students are forced to march in parades in favor of the regime as often as necessary to be able to study there.
This means that the vast majority of young people have been deprived of the right to study, because in order to enter the UNAN, one must have a political endorsement from the regime, something that was not the case in private universities.
This is taking place in an underdeveloped country, where the state does not have the capacity to provide higher and quality education to young people eager to improve themselves, without being sheep or lackeys of the dictatorship; young people eager to receive an education without political indoctrination in favor of the regime, and yearning to be quality professionals and be better prepared to serve society.
Likewise, the universities that were stripped of their juridical personality were robbed of all their assets, in violation of the Political Constitution of Nicaragua, demonstrating that laws are not enforced in that country.
What is being done is the will of people who are insane, who are only seeking political revenge against the youths for the uprising of April 2018. They believe that they will end the rebelliousness of young people by taking away the institutions of higher education. There is no doubt that this will further encourage the exodus to other countries of Nicaraguans with a real desire to work and study, something that is denied to them in their homeland.
It is unbelievable that in the 21st century a government would close six universities, deserting thousands of students and leaving the next generations without a future. This is taking place in a country that is highly indebted, where priority is being given to the military over education or health; where quality education should be promoted, allowing the freedom of education above all else in order to get out of extreme poverty; a country where its leaders should be promoting education of the highest quality.
But I forgot that the Nicaraguan rulers are not people who are formally educated. They did not want to spend time in the classrooms; for that reason, they do not want the people to study. They see those who study as guaranteed enemies because they will be independent thinkers, with their own ideas of freedom, and therefore, people who will not submit to any dictatorship.
May God protect the people of Nicaragua.
This column was published in the February 2022 edition of La Voz Católica.
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