Death toll reaches 100 in Nicaragua as political violence intensifies
By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post, June 1, 2018
MEXICO CITY--After a brief pause for dialogue, violence has returned to Nicaragua in recent days, as police and pro-government militias have clashed with protesters and businesses have been looted and burned.
The unrest this past week has intensified a crisis that has gripped Nicaragua since April. Protesters have been demanding the resignation of President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla who is now in his third term in office and holds near total power along with his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.
Human rights workers say that some 100 people have been killed since the uprising began. Ortega’s government blames the violence on right-wing agitators.
A march through Managua on Wednesday, led by mothers of those killed during protests, ended when gunmen opened fire on the crowd. Witnesses have accused police and their civilian allies of initiating the violence that left as many as 18 people dead and more than 200 wounded.
Looting, arson and clashes have broken out in different parts of Nicaragua after an initial failed attempt at dialogue between the government, student protesters, business leaders and the Catholic Church.
During the first outbreak of violence in mid-April, which occurred amid demonstrations about changes to the social security system, police shot bullets, tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds and detained and roughed up university students in different parts of the country. The unusual surge of protest prompted the government to enter negotiations, mediated by the Catholic Church.
But last week, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes announced that the talks were suspended indefinitely after a lack of progress. The opposition had called for moving up the date of elections--which are scheduled for 2021--and prohibiting Ortega from running again. His foreign minister likened the proposal to a coup.
Since then, protesters have erected roadblocks around the country. Students on Monday seized the National University of Engineering in Managua and set fire to Radio Ya, a pro-government station, amid clashes with police.
In an address this week, Murillo, the vice president, denied the existence of government-allied paramilitary groups. She blamed the violence on a “criminal conspiracy that through intimidation, fear, threats and terror, has tried to deliver the country to criminals and organized crime.”
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said on May 21, after a preliminary investigation in Nicaragua, that the protests had been characterized “by the excessive use of force by the security forces of the State and armed third persons.”
At that time, the commission said at least 76 people had been killed and 868 injured, the “vast majority in the context of the protests.”
