Alvaro Conrado, father of the first child killed in Ortega massacre, dies

Alvaro Conrado Avendaño, father of the first minor —Alvaro Conrado Davila— murdered in the 2018 civic protests, died this Friday in Managua, Nicaragua, reported the Mothers of April Association (AMA), of which he was president .

In a statement, AMA noted that “Don Alvaro played a fundamental role in the development of our association. As president of AMA, he has been an example and source of inspiration in our fight for truth and justice.

“Your tireless work and commitment to the collective hope of a better future for everyone, as well as for the non-repetition of what happened after the state repression suffered since April 2018, will serve as inspiration, light and guidance to continue his legacy,” they stressed.

Since 2018, Conrado has dedicated himself to demanding justice, nationally and internationally, for the murder of his 15-year-old son, who died of a shot to the neck on the afternoon of Friday, April 20 of that year.

The teenager went to bring water to the young people who were demonstrating against the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, when a sniper shot him on the grounds of the National Engineering University (UNI). In his agony, the minor uttered the phrase: “it hurts to breathe”, which became a symbol of the civic struggle against the dictatorship.

The minor was taken to the Cruz Azul Hospital as an emergency, but they denied him care on the grounds that the then Minister of Health, Sonia Castro, had ordered not to treat the citizens wounded in the protests.

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The Search for Justice

“My son was a normal kid and it really hurts me (…) but I don’t want a martyr, that doesn’t work for me, what I ask for is justice,” said Conrado, in May 2018 when he filed a complaint with the Nicaraguan Prosecutor’s Office, where they never gave him an answer.

“The people (guilty of the murder) have to be punished and the law has to be applied to them,” he said at the time.

Lawyer Yonarqui Martinez, recognized for defending political prisoners, commented on Twitter that “the dismay of a victim of not seeing justice undermines and deteriorates their physical and mental health. Family members fight daily for justice.”

Edwin Roman, former parish priest of the San Miguel Church, in Masaya, and now in exile, expressed his condolences and stressed that Conrado Avendaño “died without seeing justice for the crime against his son.”

This article was originally published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times