Some absurd stories or simply fakes have been presented in the media and social networks as absolute truths regarding the recent events in Nicaragua.

There has been an attempt to present the protests in opposition to neoliberal reforms, which means that now the private enterprise and the rightist forces in Nicaragua are against neoliberalism, when it was they who introduced it in the country when the Sandinistas were in the opposition. And then there is the more sensitive theme of the deaths in these convulse, past days, which has been used to manipulate public opinion unscrupulously.

The false idea that there was a students’ massacre in Nicaragua has been introduced with the purpose of manipulating the sensibility of the Nicaraguan people. The malicious image of a peaceful rally attacked by genocidal armed forces and resulting in dozens of dead people has nothing to do with what really happened.

The fake videos distorting or shamelessly falsifying the facts have been widely exposed; they were not in the least innocent, nor were the violent actions in different cities randomly simultaneous. As usual, the social networks are used to fabricate the post-truth, that is, a lie that becomes a truth by the manipulation when presented as evidence and repeated, not one hundred times per month as when Goebbels, the ideologist of Nazi propaganda, coined his famous phrase, “A lie repeated one hundred times becomes a truth,”, but multiplied hundreds of thousands of times in one second using 21st. century technology, which makes ubiquity a part of our daily life.

There are revealing video films, like the one in which a relaxed, half- smiling young man (evidently with no talent for acting) appears with a group of students saying the police is killing them, but you don’t hear detonations or see a single policeman in the surroundings. Dozens of such alarmist video films faking reality produce the desired effect in moments of group hysteria. Several videos made by spectators of the CUUN fire in León (a place linked to the Sandinista students) and the despicable assassination of journalist Ángel Eduardo Gahona (correspondent of Channel 6, the government’s official organ) clearly show that such abominable actions were carried out by especially trained rightist groups and individuals.

A purposely disseminated rumor is that the FSLN set fire to and ransacked its own premises. Despite this evident absurdity, the people’s emotional condition and the manipulation of events to generate a certain perception grant them a meaning in extreme situations. Only a few moments ago the police stopped a group of demonstrators who threatened to knock down the monument to Hugo Chávez, and although no one was beaten and no fighting took place despite the provocations, Channel 100% Noticias (agitator and instigator of hatred) was already running the headline, “Strong police repression to self-convoked march.”

The spread of violence at the most critical moments during the recent events was not originated by the Sandinistas, the government, or the Police, but by opponent groups who took advantage of the existing tension to unleash chaos and destabilization in the country. The dead ones in these days were the result of a large number of encounters throughout the country between well-armed demonstrators from both sides. Others shielded behind the most violent protesting groups attacked the Police with firearms risking the lives of the demonstrators. Rival gangs even clashed when trying to profit from the situation, also giving rise to armed encounters with the Police.

In such a situation all the casualties could not have occurred only on one side, although the fires and plundering were evidently carried out by the demonstrators and some groups of outlaws supporting them because it represented a challenge to the authorities, and in all cases encouraged by the most radical and irresponsible sectors of the opposition.

It will be necessary to await the investigations to know the real number of deceased during the events of the days of chaos. Those investigations must also shed light on the death causes. The District Attorney’s office will present the corresponding charges according to the results of the investigation; the National Assembly is creating a Commission of Truth, and Commander Daniel Ortega proposed to include the theme of the investigations in the National Dialogue to find the ones liable for the deaths, so that those unsatisfied with the investigations of the District Attorney and the Commission of Truth may make their own proposals.

The number of dead people was initially calculated in approximately 25, but in just a few minutes that figure was brought up to more than 60 by the CENIDH, whose eternal president, the former Sandinista Vilma Núñez, said 18 students were among them. Right away Miguel Mora, allegedly the future president of Nicaragua, raised the figure to 100. It is still unknown when the real number of victims of the violent events will be known; also ignored is the number of whose who opposed the INSS reform or the government, or how many died in defense of the government and the process of changes and improvements. In this last case are the victims that belonged to the Juventud Sandinista, the student leaders and Sandinista militants, and the young journalist from Channel 6, all of whom were killed by the genocidal fury of the peace enemies.

It should be pointed out that the photos and names of the victims held as banner by the most extreme rightist forces to encourage violence do not exceed twenty, and not all of them are students. The list includes persons who fell in defense of the government and are cynically assumed by the rightist activists as their victims, as well as the policemen who fell in fulfillment of their duty. There have been cases of virtual dead, wounded and missing people who later appeared in perfect health and in some cases did not even take part in the protests. It is also to be noted that the majority of the casualties were counted, without giving their names, when the calm had been restored. It was said that they were wounded who died later in hospitals, but this is equally odd, since it is impossible to have more dead than wounded in a struggle, and therefore, that most wounded die. It is also odd that most deaths were of wounded who were still alive when they arrived at the hospitals, but only so could it be explained that the number of deaths after the violent actions had ceased increased to more than double.

At a time when anyone can publicly transmit live anything that he/she is witnessing, or publish photos, and having the opponents to the Sandinista government been very active in this field, it is revealing that there is not one image or video film showing policemen killing people during the protests. We already know that the form of operation of the opponent rightist forces since the violent events is that wealthy people appear in certain places such as the Jean Paul Genie traffic circle, and after they depart they are replaced by terrorist gangs who spread terror and kill. There are films on the web by people who saw groups of gangsters with firearms shooting the students who protested at the UPOLI, and then facing the Police when it came in rescue of the victims.

There is definitely something wrong here. It is already known that evil-intentioned politicians, with the purpose of maintaining the anxiety, nourishing hatred and boycotting the dialogue, are including people who died in totally different situations among the casualties of the protests. It is possible that some policemen caused deaths because of undue use of force, and if that is the case they will surely be punished. Also most surely they would be exceptional cases, because the National Police of Nicaragua does not focus on repression but on the prevention of crime through the active participation of the police institution in the different expressions organized in the community. This makes it a model police in the continent and accounts to a great extent for the high levels of civil security enjoyed by our country, which will continue to exist if triumph is achieved in the battle for peace that we Nicaraguans wage today, spreading love instead of hatred.