The coordinator of the Sandinista Renewal Movement, or MRS, Edmundo Jarquin, yesterday denounced the cancelation of the frequency [102.1 FM] of Radio La Ley, a station in the interior owned by an opposition commentator, a measure he calls “an outrage.”
Nicaragua’s telecommunications and postal institute TELCOR, according to an article in the daily La Prensa, on Friday cancelled the frequency of the radio station belonging to Santiago Aburto and whose inauguration was planned for this Saturday in Sebaco in the northern province of Matagalpa. According to the source, the telecommunication sector’s regulatory body canceled the frequency for Aburto due to alleged infractions of the law that awards licences to companies, individuals and legal entities that operate radio, television and cable TV.
Aburto said that about 30 armed civilians came on Friday to remove him from his house where he has the radio station’s studios, equipment, transmitters and other accessories valued at close to $10,000. The radio station’s owner attributes the cancelation of the frequency to a reprisal by the government for the critical commentaries he makes on a programme broadcast on Radio Corporacion in the nation’s capital.
Jarquin told Efe he supports Aburto in this and believes that the cancelation of the frequency is not only directed against the radio commentator but against freedom of speech in Nicaragua. “This is a measure against all Nicaraguans that once again shows the authoritarian, dictatorial nature of the Daniel Ortega government,” said Jarquin, whose organization is made up of dissident Sandinistas.
(Source: Latin American Herald Tribune/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)
(Source: Latin American Herald Tribune/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)
Sandinista Renewal Movement (Movimiento de Renovación Sandinista or MRS, in Spanish) is a Nicaraguan political party founded by dissidents of the Sandinista National Liberation Front on May 18, 1995, on Augusto César Sandino's 100th anniversary. Sandino's legacy was claimed by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1979 and the MRS took Sandino's hat as a symbol in their new flag.
One of the founding leaders of MRS was Sergio Ramirez, Nicaragua's vice-president from 1985 to 1990 under the Sandinistas government. Ramirez ran as the MRS presidential candidate in the 1996 elections. The MRS got 1.33% of the votes and got 1 seat (out of 91) in the Nicaraguan Parliament.
