More violence in Nicaraguan protests

MANAGUA: One student died and 41 others were injured when armed men attacked a university they were occupying in the capital of Nicaragua as part of antigovernment protests, Amnesty International said yesterday.

‘‘The Hospital Bautista in Managua confirmed to me that they have received 41 young students who were injured, most of them by gunfire, one has died,’’ tweeted Erika GuevaraRosas, Americas director at the human rights watchdog.

‘‘This is a consequence of the attack on the University of Engineering,’’ she continued.

Students have played a key role in protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega. These began on April 17, with authorities responding with deadly force. The university was the fourth to have been occupied by students.

The demonstrations initially targeted new taxes on old age and disability pensions, as well as an increase in social security contributions. But protesters are now asking Ortega to resign.

Local media said yesterday’s attack was made by men on motorbikes, and independent broadcaster Canal 15 identified them as progovernment paramilitary gunmen.

Amnesty International, which has sent a team to investigate the government’s alleged human rights abuses during the protests, said the attack was carried out by proOrtega ‘‘Sandanista mobs’’ and later by riot police.

It posted videos on its website showing the attack, in which loud gunfire could be heard.

Unknown attackers also set fire to the offices of Nueva Radio Ya, not far from the university, yesterday. The radio station is known as a mouthpiece for Ortega’s leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front.

Student representative Lyris Solis condemned the attack and said students had nothing to do with it.

Online news website El 19 Digital, also regarded as an Ortega mouthpiece, reported that the station’s employees were also attacked and insulted.

The government called it an ‘‘attack motivated by hatred’’ and said it had been carried out by fascists.

The InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights says the protests have claimed 79 lives since they began in April. The government acknowledges only 22 deaths. — DPA

PHOTO: REUTERS Defiant . . . A demonstrator poses for a photo in front of a vandalised billboard that supported Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vicepresident Rosario Murillo, during a protest in Managua yesterday.