Violent deaths overshadow Nicaragua crisis talks

AT LEAST eight people were killed Saturday in Managua, police sources said, raising to 178 the number of deaths in anti-government unrest that began two months ago in Nicaragua.

Six of the dead were members of a single family whose home was burned down at dawn after a group of hooded armed men threw a Molotov cocktail, while the other two were attacked while clearing road barricades, police said in a statement.

Two inhabitants of the house survived by throwing themselves from a balcony, one of them a woman in serious condition and the other a child admitted to the hospital with burns, according to neighbours.

“This act of terror is a crime against humanity and cannot go unpunished,” tweeted Luis Almagro, head of the Organization of American States.

Protests for two months have escalated in a bid to pressure President Daniel Ortega to exit – upheaval the government has met with brutal repression.

The latest violence comes as the country’s Catholic bishops try to reboot fragile negotiations between government and civil society representatives.

In a surprise announcement late Friday, the clergy said rival government and civil delegates had agreed to create a “verification” commission and invite independent international bodies to probe the violence.

Under the new agreement, Managua would urge the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights – an autonomous branch of the Organization of American States – to investigate “all deaths and acts of violence, the identification of those responsible and a comprehensive plan for the victims so that effective justice is achieved”, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes said.

Bishops reconvened government and civil representatives to discuss “the process of democratisation of the country”. The talks ended with plans to meet again on Monday and discuss a “timetable of reforms” that would include consideration of “advancing the elections from 2021 to March 2019”, Catholic bishops said.

Brenes said the Church had asked Ortega to move up the next general election – a key demand of activists.

The president refused to answer directly, instead telling the bishops “we reiterate our full readiness to listen to all the proposals within an institutional and constitutional framework”. The leftist leader has in the past expressed no intention of stepping aside.

Nicaragua’s descent into chaos was triggered on April 18, when relatively small protests against now-scrapped social security reforms were met with a government crackdown.Those demonstrations mushroomed into a popular uprising, with anti-government protesters facing off against police and proOrtega paramilitaries.