Ayax Delgado

Ayax Delgado was the son of a coffee grower in northern Nicaragua. At a very young age, he became a student activist against the Somoza regime. His father was a former member of the National Guard trained by the United States Marines during the Sandino period. Around the time when Anastasio Somoza García seized power of the National Guard, Ayax's father, Santiago Delgado, conspired with his brother, Edmundo Delgado, and other National Guard members to overthrow Somoza from power.

The plot was discovered and the Delgado brothers and the other conspirators were thrown in jail under threat of execution. Somoza later released the conspirators, but from that moment on all the conspirators became permanent enemies of the regime and were under constant surveillance. Many of them went into exile to avoid the threats and harassment from the Somoza regime.

Ayax Delgado was captured while participating in "illegal" demonstrations, Santiago Delgado begged Somoza to let his son go, Somoza promised him that nothing was going to happen to his son, and that he would indeed release him. Instead, Somoza allowed someone to release Ayax from prison, but at the same time ordered a guard to shoot anyone leaving the prison compound through the exit Ayax was told to use to leave the prison building.

As Ayax crossed the gate, the guard shot him in the back killing him instantly. Ayax Delgado was 17 years old when he was imprisoned and reached his 18th birthday while in jail. His body was then put in a bag and thrown on top of a military vehicle and later dumped in the street where his parents lived. His family was expecting his release but was choked to find out that Ayax had actually died while "escaping" from prison.

The guard in question testified that he was doing guard duty when he saw Ayax "running" from prison. Many years later he confessed that he was ordered to shoot anyone leaving the compound through the particular exit he was put in charge of guarding.

During the Sandinista revolution, Ayax Delgado was considered a martyr of the revolution. In Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, there is a gymnasium run by the government that bears his name. Ayax Delgado was a typical member of the several student organizations opposing the Somoza regime. Many of these students came from middle and upper middle class families. Many of them were killed or tortured under Somoza's repressive government.