Carlos Manuel López

“Who else? You killed them!”

Murdered in Masaya on April 21, 2018

Carlos Manuel López was 42 years old. His wife, Janeira del Socorro López, says he liked to shoot pool and dress nicely, with a cap and tennis shoes. His oldest son, Alberto José López Luna, remembers him as a good father. “We would hang out together… wherever he went, he would take me along.”

Janeira remembers how loving he was. On Saturday April 21, after work, Carlos Manuel went to shoot pool with friends. When he came home, he saw the news about the murder of journalist Ángel Gahona in Bluefields. At that same moment, they heard gunshots going off in Masaya, but he still wanted to go out and buy some food. “The three of us went out and as we reached the La Redonda diner, in the Fátima neighborhood, the gunfight began,” she relates.

Worried about his mother who lived in the area, Carlos Manuel decided to go and see her. When they were one block from her house, he was shot in the back, and the bullet perforated his two lungs. Janeira went to look for help to get her wounded husband out. “The gunfight lasted about half an hour, and when the young people starting throwing rocks and shooting mortars and homemade weapons, coming back down, the paramilitaries withdrew and separated into two groups. That’s when we got him out and took him to the house where a girl had told us there was a doctor,” she explains.

The doctor recommended taking him immediately to the hospital, and they got a taxi to take him. His wife recalls these terrible moments. “I was putting pressure on the wound like the doctor had told me, so that he wouldn’t bleed out. I was praying and asking God not to take him. As we were turning near La Arenera, he looked at me as if he wanted to say something, then closed his eyes and let go of my hand.”

Carlos Manuel died before reaching the Humberto Álvarado Hospital. “While the doctor was writing up the papers,” Janeira explains, “the police arrived and asked who had killed him. I was crying desperately, and I screamed at them, “Who else? You killed him!” And I screamed at them, “Murderers! Murderers!” A woman officer told me if I didn’t shut up they would arrest me, and I answered, “Why would you take me, for saying the truth?” And I kept screaming, “Murderers!”