UNAB Announces New Protest Strategy: Pressure to Increase on Ortega-Murillo Government

“They’re still killing us!”

Those are the first words in a two-page statement released today by the Blue and White National Unity (UNAB), announcing a more forceful strategy to protest against the Ortega-Murillo government.

The organization argues that adopting non-violent resistance tactics, like stating hunger strikes, protesting on the streets, and calling for a national strike, Nicaraguans will continue to suffer under the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship.

“All sectors of society will be subjected to slavery and the most abject subjugation,” reads the statement.

Pronunciamiento de la Unidad Nacional Azul y Blanco ¡Navidad sin presos políticos! #SOSNicaragua#UnidadNacional pic.twitter.com/d0MJARTN9h

— Unidad Nacional Azul y Blanco (@UnidadNic) November 19, 2019

UNAB’s plan includes the following actions:

1. Hunger strikes and fasts. UNAB’s strategy calls for national and international hunger strikes to be staged simultaneously and in staggered form. UNAB will partner with the Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners and with the Nicaraguan community abroad to organize this effort.
2. Street protests in solidarity with political prisoners and their families. These actions include pickets, sit ins, marches, and political graffiti.
3. National Strike. UNAB acknowledges that many Nicaraguans have demanded a national strike. The organization says it has begun meeting with other stakeholders, including merchants, producers, and businesses, to set up a consensus and prepare for the strike.
4. Continued international pressure. UNAB pledges to increase their international lobbying and reporting of human rights violations in Nicaragua. The organization demands sanctions against the regime, and the recognition of its illegitimacy.

UNAB makes a special plea to the Nicaraguan private sector, as being the most important economic force in the country, to join and participate in non-violent protests and civil disobedience. In doing so, the private sector can “demonstrate its willingness to assume the risks entailed in the exercise of full citizen rights.”

The organization also calls on all citizens to support the mothers and relatives of political prisoners currently engaged in a hunger strike, and to organize themselves locally. “Don’t wait for instructions. Carry out your own, creative resistance actions wherever you are.”