(CNN Español) – The National Assembly this Friday passed a law declaring the symbols of the Defense Army of National Sovereignty (EDSN) as the nation’s intangible heritage.
Organized and led by Augusto Cesar Sandino, the EDSN was made up of youth, farmers, and workers who resisted the US military occupation in the 1920s and 1930s.
The legislation, which will be in effect from its next publication in La Gaceta, the official newspaper, is considered confiscal by Nicaraguan musician Carlos Mejía Godoy, the greatest songwriter of the so-called Sandinista revolution that overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979.
The “Law Declaring the Flag, National Anthem, Seal, Songs, Written, Graphic, and Audio-Visual Documents of the Army Defender of National Sovereignty, EDSN, as Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Nation,” was presented on February 10 before the Parliament’s first secretariat by the Commission on Education, Culture, Sports and Social Communications Media and was approved with the agreement of 74 legislators. The committee’s coordinator, Sandinista deputy Jose Antonio Zepeda, emphasized the importance of declaring these symbols as national heritage.
“To recognize them as authentic symbols of patriotism that accompanied the military in defense of the sovereignty, independence and integrity of the national territory,” said Zepeda.
Prior to the passing of the legislation, and although the names of his works are not directly mentioned in the legislative initiative, singer-songwriter Carlos Mejía Godoy already warned that his songs would be confiscated. Mejía told CNN on February 10 that “what I am doing is anticipating what may possibly come, because we live in a surreal land where anything can happen; they take ownership of lives and goods, and it is strange that they even want to occupy the air we breathe.
The singer-songwriter has complained that his authorship’s songs are broadcast at pro-government events. “In fact, they’ve already taken up our work because they don’t even fulfill the fundamental duty of crediting the authors of the songs.”
On February 19, during the opening of the special session in honor of the 87th anniversary of the death of Augusto C. Sandino, a musical group performed two songs dedicated to Sandino, one by Carlos Mejía and the other by his brother Luis Enrique.
Brothers Carlos and Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy, who wrote emblematic songs in support of the Sandinista revolution, have distanced themselves from Daniel Ortega since returning to power 14 years ago.
The Mejía Godoys dedicated concerts to the mortal victims of the anti-government protests that began in April 2018 and also, as 41 years ago, they dedicated songs to the indigenous people of Monimbó in Masaya, which is considered the epicenter of the protests .
In August 2018, Carlos Mejía Godoy left the country for security reasons. Luis Enrique Mejía is also in exile.
CNN asked for comment on Mejía Godoy’s statements to the government’s Communications and Citizenship Council, but we are still waiting for a response.
The vice president and government spokesman, Rosario Murillo, celebrated the passing of the law in her usual appeal to the official media: ‘All those writings, all this correspondence, all those books, songs, flowers, poems, all those pictures, all those those audiovisuals, images that we have of those times, which are these times, in terms of spiritual power that Nicaraguans have, all of this is our heroic, cultural and spiritual heritage, ”said Murillo.
Augusto César Sandino, was a guerrilla leader who fought against the United States military in Nicaraguan territory between the 1920s and 1930s.
After the departure of American troops from Nicaragua in 1933, Sandino was invited to speak by Anastasio Somoza, then head of the National Guard, but he was kidnapped and murdered. Somoza’s son was overthrown by the Sandinistas in 1979.