Interview with Deputy Commissioner Ramon Zavala Olivas, in Alamikamba, Prinzapolka municipality
November 16th 2021
TcS: This interview we recorded in the morning of the day Hurricane Iota struck Nicaragua's Northern Caribbean Coast. Deputy Commissioner Zavala Olivas is one of two officers who survived an attack by a heavily armed gang on June 11th 2018 on their police station in the community of Sislao Paraska, near the village of Pueblo Nuevo in the municipality of Mulukuku.Officers Carlos José Zamora Martínez and Dixon Bismarck Soza Enríquez were murdered during the attack. Sub officer Martín Sánchez Gutiérrez was abducted, tortured and murdered some time later. The attack was organized by a local opposition politician with the help of local criminals.
Tortilla con Sal: We're here in the town of Alamikamba, in the municipality of Prinzapolka. We're interviewing Deputy Commissioner Ramón Saturnino Zavala Olivas. Could you tell us a little bit about what happened in the attack in 2018, against the police station in the community of Pueblo Nuevo in the municipality of Mulukukú?
Deputy Commissioner Ramón Zavala Olivas: Yes, that's correct. Actually we were fulfilling an objective there precisely on the orders of the departmental police command to safeguard order and the tranquility of citizens in those communities. It turned out that on June 11th 2018, at about five in the morning, a criminal group, organized by Apollonio Vargas the mayor of Mulukukú, which had blockaded the road where they were not allowing producers through to sell their produce. So most of the producers lost their produce there because the roadblock would not let them pass and those who passed were charged alrge amount of money.
Well, it turns out that we were in the village maintaining order and public safety for the producers, and people were grateful. They felt confident having the police station in that area. We were not harming the population in any way, rather we were guaranteeing public safety. The producers felt very safe with the police there. They were satisfied with the police presence at that station there.
On June 11, 2018, at about 5 in the morning, a criminal group of approximately 18, 19 armed elements arrived, with weapons of war and hunting weapons. And we were attacked. We were attacked in our police station where Lieutenant Ezequiel Sanchez Enrique, Lieutenant Dixo Enrique Sosa and Lieutenant Carlos José Zamora Rodríguez were killed. We were responsible for security at that station.
There were a total of five comrades, of those the ones who survived the attack, the attack imposed by those terrorist coup criminals, I myself survived.... I was the head of the post and Sub Inspector Leonardo Castillo, who also survived the attack.
I can tell you that in fact these individuals claimed to operate a peaceful roadblock, so we never expected that these individuals were going to organize an attack. They got together all the anti-social delinquents to go and attack the police post. At no time did we imagine that these people, since they were really supposed to have a peaceful road block, were going to carry out this type of action against security, against the national police, above all the station located there.
The majority of the population of that sector is very clear about the situation and more than anyone else they are witnesses that we did no harm to the population there. We protected them and acted in accordance with the law, capturing some criminals who were harming some producers there. But nevertheless they were against the security that we were providing to the population. And that is what happened that day, on June 11, 2018.
TcS: And did that Sub Commissioner take you and your colleagues by surprise or did you already know something... that something was going to happen?
Ramón: We even maintained coordination with the communities nearby from which we were informed that there was nothing going on there. The situation there was peaceful because the population and the communities did not really want to be involved in this type of activity that they were carrying out. And therefore the people nearby were calm. We did not have any information. We were caught by surprise. Because this was organized from the urban center of Mulukukú. They organized it just to go and attack the comrades who were located in our police station.
TcS: So the attackers didn't come from the communities there, they came from further away, from other areas?
Ramón: They were not organized from the community. They were organized from the wider area, not from there near the police station. Of course they were clearly linked to the group of Rigoberto, some members of Rigoberto's group, Rigoberto... I don't know the last name, only Rigoberto. So part of that gang also participated in the aggression because they are a nexus of the criminal gang, plus the gang organized by Apollonio Vargas who at that time was the mayor of Mulukukú.
TcS: Can you explain to people that... because many people don't understand why they attacked you, why did they...? ?
Ramón: Well actually that criminal group is always against the good work that the government does. They don't agree with the Sandinista Front. The Sandinista Front is a government with many projects to support rural families, to support the people who are most impoverished. It helps those sectors. So, these groups do not agree with the help the government gives to various people of scarce resources. So they want to create pressures so as to reach power through pressure, through a coup. But really the people are clear about the situation. Especially the people in those communities where we were attacked, the people are very clear and even more, they clearly know who were the ones that came to do us harm where we were.
TcS: Yes, and Deputy Commissioner, can you tell me a little bit about... because.... about the context of this situation because there in Siuna they explained to me a little bit about the history of this so-called Armed Group Opposing the Government which is led by this guy Rigoberto and he was explaining to me that it has a criminal dimension, clearly criminal, but it also has a political aspect. Could you explain a little bit to us about that?
Ramón: Well, it's a group that moves around really in what is practically also a zone of.... part of the area of Jinotega and part of the area of the municipality of Siuna, Mulukukú and another municipality.
TcS: Here?
Ramón: Here very little, very little, but yes, it did have influence for a while, in the southern part of the municipality. Actually these people are guided by some leaders against the government.
TcS: Political leaders?
Ramón: Political leaders. Because these people in practice are really harming rural families . Those comrades who work with the Sandinista Front and are in the communities out there, they are in effect setting out to harm them, to hurt them.
TcS: Sandinista comrades?
Ramón: Sandinista comrades, comrade in the CLS*, in different communities. And in effect, according to them, they were putting pressure on the government by making their actions known to the population, their crimes, and much the same with those people who support the Sandinista Front, creating fear in the communities. But these are really criminal actions that they are engaged in. With this they are not going to win people over, rather what they are doing is turning the peasant population against them. Because no one is not going to be against the criminal actions that these individuals are carrying out.
TcS: I've been working trying to learn more about the issue of invasions of indigenous territories by people from outside, people who come from .... people call them colonists. Do you think there is any relation between these armed criminal gangs and the invasions of indigenous lands?
Ramón: Well, I think maybe the invasion of indigenous lands is by people who come from another area, from the Pacific, who sell their properties there and then, in order to buy land more favorably, they enter the indigenous territories. And since there are people who engage in doing underhand deals in the case of indigenous lands, then they buy up land, even more so knowing they are evading Law 445, right? And fo that reason, I don't consider they have much influence with those groups.
TcS: With the criminal groups?
Ramón: Yes, they don't have much influence. These are in fact more personal matters. As soon as the opportunity arises they buy and.... Some indigenous leaders, there are some indigenous leaders who have taken it upon themselves to make underhand, illegal land sales.
TcS: Maybe you have something to add?
Ramón: Thank you for the interview .... People are clear now about our project, about our government and I don't think that people are going to get things wrong. Everyone is clear that the project of the Sandinista Front is to support the most unprotected in the communities. In this specific case, what we are seeing right now in the situation since the hurricane, we have been working together with the civil authorities, so we are trying to avoid any victims, as far as flooding is concerned.
TcS: And what support have you made available for the communities after Eta and now with this other hurricane? What measures have been taken?
Ramón: We took measures together with the community, that is to say with the municipal authorities, to evacuate. To evacuate the entire population along the banks of the Prinzapolka River, both downstream and upstream. We are bringing them to shelter here in the urban center for the communities that are closer. And the communities that are further away from here, we are re-grouping them in safe places, in safe shelters, in higher areas of the communities. So that way we do not allow, that is our objective, we do not permit having victims to lament. And thank God that we have come out of the hurricane that just passed. We hope that this one that is entering now, that we will get through it well too. That is our great struggle and we hope that God allows us to come out of it safely.
* Sandinista Leadership Committees