At Least 25 Dead in Nicaragua

[Keith Woolford]

At least 25 people have died during anti-government protests over the last few days in Nicaragua.

 

[Moderator_02]

These protests in Nicaragua began last Wednesday, April 17^th because of changes in employee contributions to the Nicaraguan social security system.

Is there a similarity between the Nicaraguan civil protest activity and the labor protests and civil unrest going on in Colon?

[Uncle Doug]

25 killed in anti-government protests is a pretty big deal. This is the biggest threat to Ortega since he was elected years ago.

[Keith Woolford]

The U.S. has pulled all their diplomatic staff and issued a travel warning.

According to NGOs, death toll rises to 27 as riots continue in Nicaragua

• EFE  Sun, 04/22/2018 - 15:47

• EFE

At least 27 people have been killed, including a policeman and a journalist, in the protests against the social security reform that began last Wednesday, Nicaraguan human rights organizations reported today.

The latest data from the Government, corresponding to Friday, suggested that at least 10 people were killed; however protests have worsened since then, and clashes and vandalism, including riots continue.

Nicaraguan journalist Ángel Ganoa was shot and killed last night in the city of Bluefields, South Caribbean Autonomous Region (RACS), while broadcasting live protests against the government of Daniel Ortega, confirmed the news program El Meridiano, for which the victim worked.

The National Police reported that one of its agents is between life and death in a health center after being shot in the head near the Cristo Rey roundabout in Managua at around midnight.

Soldiers of the Nicaraguan Army remain deployed in several cities for the second day after a night of clashes and vandalism, which intensifies every day.

This Sunday, on the fifth day of protests, also shops and supermarkets looting took place in Managua and other cities in the interior of the country.

In images featured this Sunday by social media and networks, people are seen carrying objects resulting from looting in stores and supermarkets in Managua.

"Groups of rightist vandals are looting this morning the branches of the Palí supermarkets in Linda Vista and in Santa Ana and El Arbolito," reported the government website El 19 Digital, which discloses photographs and in which there is no police presence.

Meanwhile, organizations that are against the reforms to the social security claimed that they are groups related to the Government who are looting the centers of purchases and are intending to confuse the population in an attempt to delegitimize their fight.

Students called this Sunday to a new demonstration at the Universidad Politécnica (UPOLI), in Managua, which has been one of the reference centers of anti-government protests.

President Ortega blamed on Saturday "small opposition groups", whose name he did not specify, for being the cause of the revolts.

During a forced radio and television appearance, Ortega, who was accompanied by the heads of the military and police headquarters, at no time referred to the number of people killed and injured in clashes.

Pope Francis said Sunday he was "worried" about the situation in Nicaragua and, after praying the Regina Coeli before thousands of churchgoers in St. Peter's Square, called for the "end of violence" in the Central American country.

The protests in Nicaragua remain despite the fact that President Ortega announced this Saturday his willingness to dialogue with the private company to seek an alternative to the reform of social security, which triggered the strongest protests seen in the last 11 years of Sandinista government.

The Higher Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep) conditioned the dialogue with the Government to stop the "repression" against demonstrators, a position that was also assumed by the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce of Nicaragua (Amcham).

The environment remains tense in the Central American country