30 de May 2025
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On May 30, 2018, Nicaragua came together to stand with the mothers of the then 90 citizens killed by the massacre against the protests that started in April that same year. No one expected that this massive demonstration, baptized as the “mother of all marches”, would become the scene of another massacre. On a day dedicated to honoring Nicaraguan mothers, 19 of them lost their children.
Among those leading the march were Jessica Rivas, Cela Urbina, Juana Adilia Ramírez, Rosa Amanda Cruz, Martha Huete, and Janeira López—some of the brave “April Mothers” who headed the largest protest in Nicaragua during the April Rebellion, held on May 30, 2018, which also happened to be Nicaraguan Mother’s Day.
Driven by solidarity and a demand for justice for the 90 victims—the official count at the time—thousands of self-organized citizens joined what became known as “the mother of all marches.” They never imagined that the day would end in another massacre, claiming 19 more lives.
Children, elderly people, farmers, housewives, workers, university students, unemployed people, laborers, teachers… thousands of self-organized Nicaraguans marched that day in Managua and other cities across Nicaragua.
Many carried flowers and approached to embrace the mothers leading the protest, who held photos of their children and a large banner that read: “We demand justice!”
Signs at the march read, “Nothing to celebrate,” “Silence,” and “What happened to your children hurts me—they were my brothers.” The march was led by the newly formed Mothers of April Association, which brings together mothers, daughters, widows, and relatives of the deceased.
On a day when they would have expected to be at home receiving a loving gesture from their children, these women stood there without them—receiving hugs from strangers and mourning their absence together.
In the capital, the endless sea of blue and white stretched from the Jean Paul Genie Roundabout all the way to the Central American University (UCA), where the march was supposed to end with a statement that they never got to read.
While thousands moved toward the Rubén Darío Roundabout, others were just crossing the Centroamérica overpass about four kilometers away, with many more joining from different streets.
“Get out!” they shouted at Daniel Ortega, sidelined at an event with public employees where he declared, “Nicaragua belongs to all of us, and here we all stay.” The mothers who were marching alongside continued forward—but then the gunfire began.
Police and paramilitaries opened fire from the area near the National Engineering University and the Dennis Martínez National Stadium, now renamed “Sovereignty.” And more lives were lost—Orlando, Maycol, Jonathan, Francisco… 19 total. .
Hugs, tears, flowers, protest…
With flowers, embraces, and blue-and-white flags, hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans took part in the largest civic march of the April Rebellion, held in solidarity with the mothers of the murdered. Hundreds approached to hug them, cry with them, or give them roses.
The massacre in figures
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Nicaraguans had died as of May 30, 2018 due to repression against citizen protests. The march was called in solidarity with the mothers of those killed.
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were the Nicaraguans killed in attacks against the 2018 Mother’s Day marches. Eight were killed in Managua, seven in Estelí, three in Chinandega and one in Masaya.
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murders were recorded in May 2018 by the GIEI, which confirmed crimes against humanity by the government of Daniel Ortega. April, May and June were the months with the most deaths during the massacre.
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meters long, what came to be known as the “mother of all marches” began at the Jean Paul Genie Roundabout and filled every lane up to the Avenida Universitaria area, where it was attacked.
The 19 Mothers Who Lost Their Children on May 30, 2018
Many Nicaraguan mothers joined the march in solidarity with the mothers of those killed. No one expected that that civic expression would be attacked and end in a new massacre, amplifying the demand for justice without impunity, reparations, and guarantees of non-repetition. On May 30, 2021, on the third anniversary of the massacre against the Mother’s Day march, CONFIDENCIAL published the stories of the 19 women who became Mothers of April that day. Here are some excerpts.
Yadira Cordoba, mother of Orlando Aguirre Cordoba
Yadira Córdoba remembers the outrage her son, Orlando Aguirre Córdoba, felt over the killings committed by the dictatorship during the protests. That’s why the teenager insisted that they attend the march in solidarity with the women who had lost their children.
“That day I felt very tired and didn’t go to the march. But I never took away his desire to go. No one could have imagined what was going to happen. No one thought they would dare attack. And that day, I became one of the mothers “, Yadira recalls in AMA y Construye la Memoria: Libro Arte Interactivo (Love and Build Memory: Interactive Art Book), published by the Mothers of April Association and the AMA y No Olvida Museum.
A friend from her church called to tell her that “Orlandito”—as they called her son—was injured. Desperate, she rushed to the hospital. But Orlando had already passed away.
“Remembering Orlandito’s jokes makes me cry. There will never be another May 30 for me; that day will no longer be Mother’s Day for me,” says Yadira Córdoba.
Paula Hernandez, mother of Maycol Gonzalez
Paula Hernández says her family joined the protests starting April 21, after her nephew, Jeisson Chavarría, was killed in Ticuantepe.
Forty days later, her son Maycol Cipriano González Hernández was also killed. On May 30, she recalls, the whole family took a truck to join the march, but Paula thought her son wouldn’t be able to come because he had gone to work. Later, she spotted him in the crowd. “That was the last time I saw him,” she laments.
Maycol was the oldest of his siblings and was paying for his English degree with great sacrifice, convinced it was his chance to give his family a better life. At night, in his free time, he worked on building a house for his mother. He wasn’t able to finish it.
Guillermina Zapata, mother of Francisco Javier Reyes Zapata
Guillermina Mercedes Zapata was given a Nicaraguan flag stained with the blood of her son, Francisco Javier Reyes Zapata, on Good Friday in 2019—almost a year after he was killed.
A video of her son being transported on a motorcycle to the hospital was shared thousands of times on social media. He died almost immediately. A high-caliber bullet pierced the back of his skull and exited through his right eye.
She also took part in the massive march, and they had agreed to meet near Metrocentro to leave together. But Guillermina was delayed at work, and Francisco Javier left on time toward the Jean Paul Genie Roundabout, where the protest began. They never met.
When the shooting started, she ran toward Cristo Rey Roundabout. From there, she called her son’s cell phone—but there was no answer. When she called the home phone, another one of her children told her the hospital had called to report that her brother had been killed.
Josefa Meza, mother of Jonathan Morazán Meza
“Take care, son. They’re cracking down harder on young people,” Josefa Meza warned her son, Jonathan Morazán Meza, before he left home for the “Mother’s Day March.” She also attended, dressed in black, in solidarity with the mothers of those who had been killed.
When the attack began, she was near Avenida Universitaria. She saw the crowd running in panic, trying to find shelter. The first thing she did was call Jonathan over and over. The sound of the voicemail only deepened her fear.
Half an hour later, Josefa got a call from her son’s phone—but it was from the hospital. When she arrived, the medical report offered no hope. The brain scan showed his brain stem had been dislodged. Jonathan died on June 1, 2018.
“He was unconscious the entire time because the shot went straight to the brain stem. It was meant to kill—a sniper’s shot, precise and deliberate,” Josefa says.
“There will never again be a Mother’s Day on May 30. Never again! We’ll only celebrate Mother’s Day once there is justice,” she insists.
Alejandra Rivera, mother of Daniel Josías Reyes Rivera
“Don’t worry, nothing is going to happen to me,” Daniel Josías Reyes Rivera said to his mother, Alejandra Rivera, on one of the many days she insisted he not go out on the streets between April and May 2018.
From the start of the protests, her son stopped going to university, but every day he would leave the house without saying where he was headed. They later learned he was joining the demonstrations.
On May 30, he left home to take part in the Mother’s Day March. “He was up front, in the line of students who formed a human chain to protect the mothers,” Alejandra recalls in the book by the Asociación Madres de Abril and the “AMA y No Olvida” Museum.
She was watching the march on television and grew distressed when she saw the attack on the massive crowd begin. She called Daniel several times, but he didn’t answer. From that moment, he was missing—and it wasn’t until two days later that they found out his body was at the Institute of Forensic Medicine.
Marta Portobanco, mother of Edgard Guevara Portobanco
On May 30, 2018, Marta Portobanco Vallejos was at home watching the news. She had stayed behind to care for her younger grandchildren while her daughters, sons-in-law, and older grandchildren joined the massive Mother’s Day March. That’s when her son, Edgard Guevara Portobanco, arrived. He lay down beside her, and they continued watching TV.
When news reports began covering the gunfire at the march, he got up and said, “I’ll be right back, I’m running an errand.” He left on his motorcycle. She never imagined he was heading to the very place they were watching on television, where people were fleeing in terror.
Determined, Edgard went to the Enel Central area, where he joined a group of “blue and white” motorcyclists, who formed a barrier to block a mob from advancing on the protesters.
“At around 5:30 in the afternoon, while riding his motorcycle… he was struck in the chest by a firearm,” states a report from the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI).
In denouncing his killing, the family said he left to try to stop the attack on the massive march, because he knew there were many mothers and children there.
Aura Blandón, mother of Dodanim Castilblanco Blandón
Her eyes reflect the pain that still lingers. Aura Blandón Ortiz describes—in a video published by the AMA Memory Museum—the most “horrible” moment of her life as May 30, when she had to identify the body of her son, Dodanim Castilblanco Blandón, who was shot in the chest while participating in the Mother’s Day March in Estelí.
Castilblanco Blandón was 26 years old. According to the GIEI, he was “shot in the chest with a firearm” during an attack by “armed shock groups.”
His family holds responsible “armed individuals, former guerrilla fighters, members of the Sandinista Youth, and others who were heavily armed with powerful weapons and ambushed” the demonstrators.
They remember him as a devoted father to his two young children; passionate about taekwondo—in which he won multiple Central American medals—hardworking, and entrepreneurial.
Sara Amelia López, mother of Cruz Obregón López
A phone call brought the devastating news. Sara Amelia López, mother of Cruz Alberto Obregón López, was in Costa Rica when her daughter Emy called to tell her that he had been killed—shot multiple times in the chest, neck, and back.
“I had been feeling deeply sad about everything happening in Nicaragua… never imagining that on May 30 (2018), I would receive such heartbreaking news—that my youngest son (just 23 years old) had been taken from me like that,” she said with sorrow.
The GIEI states that “paramilitary groups,” allegedly called in by local authorities from the Estelí mayor’s office, were the ones who “attacked” the “demonstrators participating in the Mother’s Day March” in that city.
Sara Amelia says that since her son’s killing, “it’s as if a part of me also went to the cemetery.”
She describes “Crucito”—as he was lovingly called—as intelligent, studious, and hardworking. She recalls that he used to support the Sandinista Front, but changed after witnessing the repression and the killing of his friend and classmate, Orlando Francisco Pérez. “Orlando’s death hurt him deeply… and that’s when he got more involved in the marches,” she explains.
Candelaria Díaz, mother of Carlos Manuel Vásquez Díaz
In the final hours before her son’s death, Candelaria Díaz got to hear his voice one last time. In a video published by the AMA Memory Museum, she recalls how her son, Carlos Manuel Vásquez Díaz, told her he was on his way to Monimbó, Masaya, to visit her on May 30, 2018, for Mother’s Day. But a bullet to the chest kept him from making it.
“He called me early and said: ‘Mom, happy Mother’s Day… I love you so much… I’ll be there tonight.’ Later that night, he called again and said he was on his way home, but 10:30 p.m. came and he still hadn’t arrived,” she recounts.
She remembers that when she heard her son had been shot, she rushed to look for him at “La Placita” in Monimbó, where people told her that demonstrators had taken him to an improvised medical post. But when she got there, the Red Cross was already transferring him to Humberto Alvarado Hospital, where he was declared dead at 12:15 a.m.
“I never imagined the tragedy I was about to face… I thought maybe he’d been shot in the leg, or the arm… but I was only at the hospital for five minutes when a doctor came out and said there was nothing they could do—that he was already gone,” the mother mourns.
After the death of 28-year-old Carlos Manuel, Candelaria learned that her son had stayed behind to support the community’s resistance on his way to visit her. “He saw the young people who were out there fighting, and he stayed with them,” she says. She never imagined he wouldn’t make it to see his mom.
María Elena Zepeda, mother of Juan Zepeda Ortiz
Juan Alejandro Zepeda Ortiz, 18 years old, dreamed of becoming a doctor. He was killed in Chinandega on May 30, 2018. “He loved studying, he was a good student, but they stole his dream when they killed him,” mourns his mother, María Elena Zepeda.
She describes him as a cheerful young man who got good grades and was nicknamed “El Gastón” by his friends. She recalls he enjoyed playing baseball and was in his final year of high school at the Chinandega Polytechnic School.
She realized her son was “involved in something” (referring to the 2018 protests) when she noticed him singing protest songs.
“I heard him singing songs from the marches, and I saw how he started getting involved (…) he didn’t say anything because he knew, like any other mother, I would be scared,” she explains in a video from the AMA and No Olvida de las Madres de Abril Museum.
On May 23, he joined the marches organized in Chinandega and soon began facing police harassment, with officers following him on motorbikes and patrol cars—even to his home. But that didn’t stop him. “He wanted a free country,” María Elena says firmly.
On May 30, he left home around 7:30 a.m. to join the protest march. In Chinandega, as in other departments of the country, the march was attacked by the National Police and pro-government shock groups. He was shot in the head. He died at 3:30 a.m. on May 31 in the local hospital.
Nidia Hernandez, sister of Rudy Antonio Hernandez
Rudy Antonio Hernández Almendárez did not agree with the brutal repression carried out by Daniel Ortega’s government against the protests that began in April 2018. Since then, he had been carrying a Nicaraguan flag on the tricycle he used to make a living transporting goods. That’s how his sister, Nidia Hernández Almendárez, remembers him.
On May 30, at 11:40 p.m., Rudy was admitted to Hospital España in Chinandega, already deceased, according to the report from the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI). In the list of deceased individuals submitted by the Nicaraguan state to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), it states that his injuries were caused by “multiple shrapnel wounds to the chest.” However, a report published by La Prensa said his body showed “shotgun pellets in the left shoulder and chest.”
In a video recorded by the pro-government Channel 8, Rudy’s mother, Lucía Margarita Almendárez, says her son was wounded after approaching the site of the clashes by chance. In her testimony, she claims his murder wasn’t Daniel Ortega’s fault, though she also doesn’t blame the “criminal groups” that the police alleged were responsible.
His sister recalls that the protest was repressed by police and by members of the Sandinista Youth (JS), who had barricaded themselves inside Chinandega’s City Hall “because the young protesters had pushed them back with stones.”
“This was a massacre carried out by the government against unarmed youth, who only had stones and slingshots. They were shooting to kill, because all the victims had precise gunshot wounds,” denounced Nidia Hernández.
Vilma Reyes Somoza, mother of Kevin Coffin Reyes
On December 16, 2017, Kevin Antonio Coffin Reyes gave his mother, Vilma Reyes Somoza, one of the greatest joys of her life: he won the gold medal in sambo in the 90-kilogram category at the XI Central American Games Managua 2017.
Less than a year later, on May 30, 2018, he was killed. His family claims that “he was sprayed with bullets from a pickup truck” while on his way to attend a government event.
Vilma told the pro-government Channel 4 that her son dreamed of achieving success in his sport. “Half of my life is gone. He was everything,” his mother recalled.
Kevin was a member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and had been working at the Ciudad Sandino City Hall for just over a month. The GIEI report states that at 5:30 p.m., “he was admitted dead to the Military Hospital School ‘Dr. Alejandro Dávila Bolaños,’ from a gunshot wound to the chest.”
In July 2019, the municipal authorities of Ciudad Sandino inaugurated a sports complex named after him. At the event, his mother expressed her gratitude for the tribute.
Margarita Diaz, mother of Heriberto Perez Diaz
Three days before Heriberto Maudiel Pérez Díaz was killed, on May 30, 2018, his mother, Margarita Díaz Aguirre, had a dream that he would die a horrific death.
“I dreamed three days ago that he was covered in blood. I don’t ask for anything because justice will come from above,” she told the pro-government outlet El 19 Digital, which reported that she blamed university students for her son’s death.
A National Police press release stated that he died following an attack allegedly carried out by a “group of criminals” against “people participating in the Cantata in honor of Nicaraguan Mothers,” organized by the government. However, the GIEI report notes that this version has been widely questioned. The group requested further information but never received a response. “In this case, the lack of information and scarcity of alternative sources have made it difficult to determine the exact circumstances of his death,” the report stated.
Mirna Ríos, grandmother of Dariel Steven Gutiérrez Ríos
Dariel Steven Gutiérrez Ríos’s family endured 60 days of anguish and pain. The 20-year-old was shot in the head on May 30, 2018, and died on July 31 that same year.
His mother, an unidentified Sandinista militant, blamed “the terrorist gang of La Trinidad” through the pro-government Channel 4. His grandmother, Mirna Ríos, former FSLN deputy mayor of Jalapa, was the most vocal face in the demand for justice in his case. She was the one who went to retrieve his body from the Institute of Legal Medicine.
According to the family’s account, also included in the GIEI report, Dariel was part of a Sandinista caravan when “clashes broke out with people stationed at the roadblock on the Pan-American Highway North, kilometer 124 (La Trinidad, Estelí).”
However, the April 19th Movement of Estelí released a video showing the young man in an opposition caravan, shouting: “Long live the students!” He was also wearing the same clothes as the day he was shot. The group claimed that he had joined the anti-Ortega protests.
Thelma Lopez, sister of Mauricio Lopez Toruño
The name of the mother of Mauricio Ramón López Toruño, who was killed on May 30, 2018, was never mentioned in any media outlet. The voice that delivered every statement about his death was that of his sister, Thelma Lucía López Toruño, who adamantly denied — in pro-government media — that her relative had been participating in the anti-regime protests in Estelí.
The GIEI report states that Mauricio Ramón, 42 years old, “was shot with a firearm” and was “treated” at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Estelí. However, he died during surgery at 10:30 p.m.
According to experts, a “caravan of pro-government sympathizers” had attempted to dismantle the roadblock set up in La Trinidad, Estelí, earlier that morning, but some of them failed to make it through to Managua and instead “headed toward the city of Estelí, where they were joined by paramilitaries who had allegedly been summoned by the city’s mayor.” Later, there was a “hunt” for young people in La Trinidad, and in the afternoon, the participants of the “Mothers’ March” were “attacked by those groups.”
Mauricio Ramón was buried in the municipal cemetery. In the pro-government report, Thelma said that “the whole family and friends still can’t come to terms with the crime.” She blamed the killing on “vandals” who attacked him when “he was returning from selling products, accompanied by the driver of a pickup truck, who was also wounded by gunfire.”
GIEI experts lamented that in Mauricio Ramón’s case, “the lack of information and the scarcity of alternative sources have made it difficult to determine the exact circumstances of his death.”
Marvin José Meléndez Núñez, killed in Chinandega
Although several pro-government outlets reported widely on the killing of Marvin José Meléndez Núñez — a 49-year-old FSLN militant who worked in the Risk Management Unit of the El Viejo City Hall in Chinandega — they never reported the name of his mother, though they did publish a photo of her and other family members beside his burial vault in a cemetery.
“We, his siblings, his children, are in pain (…) my mother is left with a deep sorrow. We ask that these conflicts stop, because there have already been too many deaths,” one of his sisters told pro-government Channel 13, which also did not identify her by name.
His family has participated in FSLN-organized events, but the media has not broadcast their statements. They highlighted that he carried out important humanitarian work for 18 years during hurricanes, droughts, floods, emergency drills, rescue missions for missing persons near the Cosigüina Volcano, and in fighting forest fires.
A press release from the National Police stated that Marvin died in front of the Chinandega City Hall when a “group of criminals” attacked the building and assaulted the people guarding it.
Felipe Salcedo, father of Darwin Salcedo Vílchez
The family of Darwin Salcedo Vílchez, originally from San Juan del Río Coco, gave practically no statements to the media. The only one who spoke was his father Felipe Salcedo, apparently a Sandinista, who told the official newspaper El 19 Digital that the 18 year old was not a student and worked in a lathe workshop in Estelí. He had left the workshop on the night of May 30 heading home when he was struck by a bullet.
The propaganda outlet reported that his father said the young man died on June 1 at the San Juan de Dios hospital in Estelí, after he was “accidentally shot in the head on May 30 during the clashes that took place in that city.”
The report published by the newspaper La Prensa states that the direct cause of his death was due to a “brainstem dysfunction caused by a wound inflicted by a .22 caliber rifle bullet that penetrated his skull.”
GIEI experts said they requested a meeting with Darwin’s family and more information from the State about this and other deaths, but “they never received a response.”
Jairo Antonio Osorio Raudales, killed in Jalapa
Jairo Antonio Osorio Raudales was 39 years old. Originally from Teocacinte, Jalapa. He worked as a farmer and was the father of a ten-year-old child. His story and the names of his family members are unknown.
A year after his assassination, his mother and family participated in an event organized by the FSLN, according to photos from the Las Segovias en Noticias portal, but no statements from them have been recorded.
On May 30, 2018, according to the GIEI report, Jairo was killed during clashes between people stationed at the roadblock set up on the Panamericana Norte highway at kilometer 124 (Municipality of La Trinidad – Estelí) and police officers and members of a caravan of government party supporters who tried to evict them in order to pass through that area to Managua to attend a government event scheduled in the capital.
“Jairo Antonio, who was part of the caravan, was shot in the thorax. At approximately 1:00 in the afternoon he arrived at the San Juan de Dios Hospital (Estelí), already dead”, according to the GIEI report.
The National Police reported in a press release that 16 policemen and 31 people were injured that day and blamed “hooded subjects”.
The GIEI report mentions there is reason to believe that the shots that hit the victim came from the people stationed at the roadblock. However, they were unable to arrange a meeting with Jairo Antonio’s family, as with other victims’ families.
José Manuel Quintero, murdered in Estelí
The story of how José Manuel Quintero died has yet to be told. The names of his mother or any relatives are unknown. Neither is there information on the number of bullets that caused his death, which part of his body was hit, whether he was another protester against the regime, or if his family is still demanding justice.
According to the GIEI, he was 28 years old, from Estelí, and was admitted to the local hospital already deceased. “The Commission for Truth, Justice and Reparation (created by the National Assembly with a Sandinista majority) links his death to the context of social protest, placing it at the La Trinidad roadblock, without further details,” the GIEI report notes.
The group documented “two conflicts” on May 30, 2018, in the Estelí department where “firearms and violence were used.” One at the roadblock set up on the Panamericana Norte route, exactly at kilometer 124 in the municipality of La Trinidad, and the other during the Mothers’ March held in the city of Estelí. Both involved “attacks” carried out by people described as “paramilitaries” and “shock groups” aligned with the Daniel Ortega regime.
Editor’s note: The stories in this feature were originally published on May 30, 2021, and excerpts were summarized for this version.
