Marcelo de Jesús Mayorga López

Marcelo de Jesús Mayorga López and his family got involved with the protests that began in April 2018. His family was part of a civic defense group in Masaya, whose work included rescuing the wounded, distributing food and homemade mortars, and even transporting paramilitaries who were captured at the barricades. On June 19, 2018, the police, anti-riot forces and paramilitaries attacked the city as part of the “Get Avellán Out” operation, whose goal was to reach the Masaya Police Headquarters to supposedly free Commissioner Ramón Avellán, who was under siege by protesters.

Between 10 and 11 in the morning, Marcelo and others were trapped near the San Jerónimo Park. Shortly afterwards, while he was helping a young man who’d been wounded near the old Aguilar Pharmacy, Mayorga was shot in the head by an AK-47.

When Marcelo’s wife learned what had happened, she and a neighbor went to look for him. The police prevented firefighters from removing her husband’s body, and she was finally able to get him out in a garbage cart. When he was murdered, the only “weapon” Marcelo Mayorga was carrying was a slingshot.