NICARAGUA BURIES VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE

MANAGUA: Mourning families held funerals across Nicaragua on Friday (Saturday in Manila) for 16 people killed in one of the bloodiest days of protest in the country, where weeks of anti- government demonstrations have left more than 100 dead. Anguished relatives sobbed over the caskets of their loved ones at a series of funerals in the capital Managua, shocked over the brutal repression of what was a peaceful Mother’s Day march on Wednesday. Hundreds of people packed into a church in Managua for the funeral of 14-year- old high school student Orlando Cordoba, who was hit by a bullet while marching in a protest against President Daniel Ortega’s government at the Central American University. “Lord give me peace in my heart... I never expected this,” said his weeping mother, Yadira Cordoba, as she clung to his coffin while it was being closed. Similar emotional scenes were repeated at other funerals as victims were laid to rest after what protest umbrella group Civic Alliance described as the “worst massacre” since protests started on April 18. The seven-week- old protests began over a much-hated pension reform and ballooned into a mass threat to Ortega’s rule. The embattled president denies repressing them, and called Wednesday’s unrest a “conspiracy” by the opposition aimed at “terrorizing” the people. He has rejected calls to step down and the Catholic Church, which has tried to mediate the conflict, has refused to resume the talks as long as government “repression” continues.