AMERICA/NICARAGUA - Cardinal Brenes calls for a Christian burial for the boys killed in the clashes on November 12

Monday, 27 November 2017 human rights   children   violence   justice   bishops   democracy  

Arquidiocesis Managua / L.Gutierrez

Managua (Agenzia Fides) - Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua, asked the General Command of the Nicaraguan Army to deliver the bodies of Lea Valle’s two sons, 16 and 12 years old, who were killed on 12 November in a military action in San Pablo 22, a community in the town of La Cruz di Rio Grande (see Fides 23/11/2017), whose dynamics are still to be clarified in which also 6 peasants died.
According to the note sent to Agenzia Fides by La Prensa newspaper, on Sunday, November 26, in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua, Cardinal Brenes, after Mass said to the faithful present: "It would be a good gesture on behalf of the Command of the Army, to deliver those two bodies to the mother", added Cardinal Brenes, pointing out the feelings that accompany the Christian burial.
On this same subject, the Bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa, Mgr. Rolando Álvarez Lagos has asked the government and the military to explain how the two minors died in a alleged clash with the army. After concluding the Mass for the ordination of a priest in the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, in Matagalpa on November 24, Mgr. Alvarez Lagos said: "All Nicaraguans are awaiting the Government's explanation and response "regarding the death of these boys. "We heard there were people who opposed to the government and the armed forces, we heard there was a fight, but we did not understand how the two boys died", the Bishop said.
Even the Auxiliary Bishop of Managua, Mgr. Silvio Báez, and Vicar Silvio Fonseca, spoke of this crime. "We want the army to give us answers. Why were they shot?" What explanation can you give for the death of these two boys? "Why were they buried in a common pit?" wrote Mgr. Baez on his Twitter account. While Mgr. Silvio Fonseca, Vicar for Life, Family and Childhood of the Archdiocese of Managua, said that the army is in "serious danger" for having been called "an assassin army" unless it clarifies this tragic fact. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 27/11/2017)


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