Posted on 06/06/2018 6:24:46 AM PDT by Red Badger
MANAGUA: At least 121 people have been killed in a wave of protests since Apr 18 against President Daniel Ortega's government, Nicaragua's main human rights group said Tuesday (Jun 5), calling it a "human tragedy."
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) said another 1,300 people have been wounded in the protests, which have met with a violent crackdown from the government.
"This is now a massacre, a human tragedy where the goal is to exterminate all those young people who think differently than or are critical of the government," the group's executive secretary, Marlin Sierra, told AFP.
"It amounts to state terrorism."
The latest toll includes a young boy killed by gunfire during clashes Tuesday in the resort city of Granada between anti-government protesters and riot police, the group said.
A parish priest, Wilmer Perez, earlier told the 100% news channel that the boy was killed in a confrontation between demonstrators and government supporters trying to clear a barricade in the city, 45 kilometers south of the capital Managua.
Ten people were also killed in running battles over the weekend in the flashpoint city of Masaya, near Managua, said the CENIDH.
Masaya residents armed with homemade mortars and slingshots faced off in clashes with what they said were riot police and vigilante groups loyal to Ortega, who has dominated the Central American country's politics for four decades.
Separately on Tuesday, the Organization of American States, which was holding its general assembly in Washington, issued a condemnation of the violence and appealed to the Nicaraguan government and other parties to "demonstrate commitment and engage constructively in peaceful negotiation."
ON EDGE
The city braced for a new night of clashes Tuesday, after several nights of attacks that residents say were led by riot police.
"Yesterday we buried one person, the day before we buried another. One was a 15-year-old boy. He begged for his life. He told the policewoman, 'Don't kill me, don't kill me.' But bam, bam, she shot him," said Ramona Garcia, 83.
Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes (foreground) receives a coffin with the body of Nicaraguan Cardinal Miguel Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes receives a coffin with the body of Nicaraguan Cardinal Miguel Obando for a mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua on Jun 4, 2018. (Photo: AFP/Inti OCON)
"We're sick and tired of it. We want ... Ortega to go. The people want him to go, all Nicaragua wants him to go," she told AFP, speaking beside one of the myriad barricades residents have erected in the streets.
Built with cobblestones, furniture, sheet metal and whatever else is at hand, the barricades are meant to keep out pro-Ortega gangs, whom residents accuse of pillaging the city of 100,000 people.
The government blames criminals for the pillaging, and says it sent in riot police at the request of small-business owners.
ECONOMIC PRESSURE
In Managua, there is a virtual curfew in place after dark, with motorcycle gangs terrorising those who venture out, according to the CENIDH.
Barricades set up on key highways have meanwhile ground transportation to a halt. Some parts of the country are beginning to run out of fuel and other essentials.
The country's business elite, long close to Ortega, have broken with him over the crackdown.
A demonstrator fires a homemade mortar against riot police during protests in Masaya near Managua on A demonstrator fires a homemade mortar against riot police during protests in Masaya near Managua on Jun 2, 2018. (Photo: AFP/Inti OCON)
The Catholic Church, also once close to Ortega, initially tried to mediate the conflict. But it called off the talks after attacks on a march led by victims' mothers last Wednesday left 16 people dead.
The crackdown on what started as relatively small protests against pension cuts has fueled demands for the ouster of Ortega and Murillo.
Ortega blames the violence on right-wing opposition groups he says are conspiring to "terrorise" the country.
The former guerrilla leader first came to power in 1979, at the head of a communist junta installed by the Sandinista rebels after they ousted dictator Anastasio Somoza.
He lost power at the ballot box in 1990, then led the opposition until winning a 2006 election that again returned him to the presidency.
He is now serving his third consecutive term, due to end in 2022.
Because they are Sandinista supporters........................
Because it isn't newsworthy. I see no mention in the story of Russians or porn stars.
On a serious note I spent some time in Nicaragua a few years ago. I speak Spanish and the cynicism and disillusionment with the government was widespread. I remember speaking with one former Sandinista fighter who had been on a Somoza death list and he told me that Nicaragua hadn’t had an actual revolution since the 19th century. He was quite bitter.
Very interesting. Thanks for posting and commenting. BUMP!
National Socialism / International Socialism fails again?
Does The Burn know?
Meet the new boss.
Same as the old boss...........................
And yet the Nicaraguans chose him for President after having experience in the '80s with him and his ilk. Be careful of what you wish for.
Ortega is being a fascist?
Whhoda guessed?
Communism in designer sunglasses
National Socialism / International Socialism fails again?
Yes it does. The only difference between National Socialism
and International Socialism is the prefix, Inter.
Both systems are Socialistic.
“”And yet the Nicaraguans chose him for President after having experience in the ‘80s with him and his ilk. Be careful of what you wish for.””
Same thought came to my mind and then I have to wonder how many had a choice in a corrupt government. Don’t know if Carter was down there to assure an honest election, do we?
Chances are the answer to “honest” is - are you kidding?
“This is now a massacre, a human tragedy where the goal is to exterminate all those young people who think differently than or are critical of the government,”
Friend of the Obama’s and Flag stander Bill Ayers advocated killing 20 million Americans. (With population growth, he no doubt currently advocates murdering 30 million of us.)
Not one word about this on abccbsnbccnnmsnbcfox
BTW, one thing several people in Nicaragua told me is that Daniel Ortega isn’t really the villain there, it’s his wife, who is much more of a hard-line Marxist than her husband and who is very much the power behind the scenes.
Wall Street Journal has a lengthy article on this.
Another Evita........................
We elected Obama twice, the second time he wasn't a pig in a poke.
If "they" had their way "we" would have elected the pig Hillary!™ despite her well known trail of corruption and dead bodies.
How long after that would Guatemalans be reading stories like this one about us?
There'd be...
Yes, their life is terrible. But the US has been told by them and their liberal supporters that their national affairs are none of our business. I like it that way! Maybe they should invite some UN peacekeepers to help out.
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