Death toll in Nicaragua crisis ‘rises to 139’
THE death toll resulting from Nicaragua’s escalating crisis rose over the weekend to at least 139, according to a rights group.
Opposition activist Juan Gutierrez, 28, died during an attack on a barricade he was fighting to defend in the municipality of Sebaco, about 90km north of the capital, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights said. A university coalition attributed the attack to governmentbacked gangs along with antiriot police.
Silvio Romero, vicar of Managua’s cathedral, said on Sunday the Catholic Church continues to await a response from President Daniel Ortega concerning a proposal from bishops to revive talks to calm the crisis, which sparked April 18.
“We have no communication” with Ortega,” he said. “All the people are waiting for an answer. But people are beginning to say that while waiting for a written answer, there is already an answer on the streets,” the vicar said, alluding to the continued repression of protests against Ortega’s leftist government.
The police, meanwhile, said “armed criminal groups” attacked a police outpost in the municipality of El Jicaral, 140km northwest of Managua, and kidnapped three of its officers.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) wrote on Twitter that the Nicaraguan government reported the “disappearance” of the agents.
The CIDH voiced “concern” while saying “we urge that this situation be clarified”.
On Sunday at least 127 makeshift roadblocks stood throughout the country, peasant leader Francisca Ramirez said, a strategy protesters are using to try and pressure the government to find a solution to the political chaos through dialogue.
In Managua, an opposition caravan toured the capital’s neighbourhoods urging people to organise their defence against paramilitary groups who activists say are roaming the streets and gunning down demonstrators on motorcycles and trucks.
The movement to push Ortega from office has crossed international borders as Nicaraguans living abroad demonstrate in Madrid and other European capitals.