Five dead in Nicaragua protest
Demonstrators respond with guns when security forces attacked them
managua: Four police officers and a protester died in Nicaragua, the latest in more than 260 fatalities in months of demonstrations against President Daniel Ortega – a one-time revolutionary hero now derided as a leftist despot.
The fatalities occurred in the southeast town of Morrito as marching protesters, some of them armed, came under attack from police and paramilitaries and responded with gunfire, said Francisca Ramirez, head of an opposition grouping called the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy.
Police confirmed the death toll but blamed the violence on “terrorist groups” that pretended to be carrying out a peaceful march and opened fire on a police station.
Protesters also abducted nine police officers and attacked the Morrito town hall, the police said in a statement.
Morrito is a town of 6,000 that is home to many farmers who own guns to protect their land.
In Managua, thousands of people waving blue and white Nicaraguan flags marched on Thursday along downtown avenues in a violence-free procession. Referring to Ortega, many chanted, “He must go!”
Carolina Aguilar, 52, accused the Ortega government of killing pro- testers with impunity.
“We cannot live with a murderer, with a scorpion that kills us day after day. I would give my life for this end,” she said.
The protests erupted in Nicaragua on April 18, initially against now-- scrapped pension reform. But they have since boiled over into demands for Ortega, the Sandinista guerrilla leader who led a revolt that ousted US- backed dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, to step down.