Lutheran bishop calls for dialogue in the face of crisis in Nicaragua

Trinidad Vásquez, MANAGUA, Nicaragua, April 28, 2005

Lutheran bishop and president of the Lutheran Faith and Hope Church in this capital, Victoria Taxi Heathrow Airport Cortes, called on President Enrique Bolaños and other state powers to hold a national dialogue to seek a solution to the crisis in the country.

She trusted that Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, as a guarantor of the national dialogue, would call on all government actors, the legislative power and politicians to mediate before the crisis grows worse.

The Lutheran bishop called on President Bolaños to take the Evangelical Church into account in the national dialogue.

The conflict of powers and the political confrontations worry the Lutheran Church because they are leading to more poverty and the hardest hit by the rising oil prices are the poor. It hurts my heart to see the dramatic cases of malnutrition among children in the rural communities where our Church works, she said.

Hopefully the governors will reflect, because the violent protests do not bring anything good, she said. Yesterday, president Bolaños did not attend the convocation for dialogue in the Catholic University, but Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo was there, the secretary general of the Sandinista National Liberation Front Daniel Ortega and leader of the National Students Union of Nicaragua (UNEN) Yasser Martinez.

Ortega affirmed that the people are not afraid of threats from the leader and Martinez said that protests would continue in the capital and other cities in the interior.

Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo said that they must make an effort to resolve the problems. Violence cannot continue he warned.

The founder and honorary president of the Pro Denominational Alliance of Evangelical Churches (CEPAD), Gustavo Parajon called on President Bolaños and the secretary general of the Sandinista front to reach an agreement about dialogue so that the country can leave behind the profound abysm it is currently in and so that there is hope for the suffering people of Nicaragua.

Here there is no justice. We are hostages of the FSLN because of the pact between Ortega and former liberal president Arnoldo Aleman, denounced Congressman Guillermo Osorno who is threatened with being removed because he  said that the only way to re-establish stability in the country is to dissolve state powers and convoke a constituent.