Nicaragua agrees to probe deadly unrest
Chaos was triggered when relatively small protests against social security reforms were quelled
In a surprise announcement, Nicaragua’s influential Catholic bishops late on Friday said rival government and civil delegates had agreed to create a “verification” commission and invite independent international bodies to probe the violence that has left at least 170 people dead.
In a twist after a morning session that closed in apparent impasse, the opposing representatives also reached consensus to prepare a plan for removing pervasive road blockades that antigovernment activists have built to fend off security forces — a key government demand.
Election date
Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes revealed the Church had asked President Daniel Ortega to move up the next general election — a move activists have vehemently called for — to 2019 from the currently slated 2021.
The president did not concretely answer, 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.
Bishops were to reconvene government and civil representatives yesterday to discuss “the process of democratisation of the country.”
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.
Under the new agreement Managua would urge the presence of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights — an autonomous branch of the Organisation 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,” Brenes said.
The country would also allow in the United Nations Commission for Human Rights as well as a European Union delegation. Those three bodies would accompany a new “verification and security commission,” according to the agreement.
Under the new agreement, the country would also allow in the United Nations Commission for Human Rights as well as a European Union delegation.