Gerald José Vásquez López

On July 13, 2018, the government implemented what they called Operation Clean-up in the National Autonomous University (UNAN) in Managua, using police and paramilitaries to block access to the area. They used weapons of war to attack the students who had been entrenched on the campus since the previous May 7. As part of the operation, a portion of the Arlen Siu Child Care Center was burned and the university campus was sacked by groups of violent Sandinistas.

The pastor of the Divina Misericordia Church decided to give refuge to the university students in the church, including Gerald Vásquez, in the midst of a ferocious armed attack by police and paramilitaries against the church premises, which lasted more than 10 hours. In the early morning hours of July 14, Gerald was shot in the head and was transported to the Metropolitano Hospital, and was dead on arrival.