Ortega defends parapolice violence as US steps up warning

MANAGUA: Nicaragua’s veteran leader Daniel Ortega defended brutal action by his forces against anti- government protesters Monday, as the US warned he and his wife were ‘ ultimately responsible’ for deaths and rights violations.

In the latest of a number of foreign media interviews the usually hermetic president is now giving, Ortega told the Euronews and CNN Spanish television channels the unrest was fomented by the US.

He described armed and masked paramilitaries seen cooperating closely with his security forces against the protesters as ‘volunteer police’.

And Ortega reaffirmed his rejectionofoppositioncallsforearly elections or his resignation.

That “would open the doors to anarchy in the country,” he asserted to Euronews.

The interviews showed that the former leftwing guerrilla who has ruled Nicaragua for 22 of the past 39 years, was digging in despite growing international condemnation.

Three months of turmoil have killed more than 300 people, according to Nicaraguan rights groups and the UN.

Ortega disputes that count as ‘ not correct’. He gave his own death toll of 195, including two dozen police officers, as well as paramilitaries, sympathisers of his ruling Sandinista party and other civilians.

Although tensions have diminished in the past week and a half following intense armed operations against protest hubs, resentment against Ortega and his wife vice-president Rosario Murillo simmers unabated. — AFP