A fresh wave of violence claimed at least seven lives, including a baby, in Nicaragua as international criticism mounted against the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega over its response to the protests against his rule.
The clashes began on Friday evening, hours after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights presented a report saying that the Nicaraguan government has violated human rights during the protests, which started in mid-April and have been met by a heavy-handed crackdown by security forces and allied civilian groups.
Opposition and civic groups called off a march planned for Saturday afternoon to honor those killed in the latest clashes.
The organizers said they wanted to avoid further bloodshed.
Saturday was also Father’s Day in Nicaragua.
Protesters are calling for Ortega’s ouster and opposition groups want presidential elections to be moved up by two years to next year. Nicaragua has no term limits and Ortega has yet to respond to the demand for early elections.
The Roman Catholic Church is mediating talks between opposition groups and the government, and Nicaraguan bishops have called for discussions to resume today.
Pablo Abrao, executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said on Twitter on Saturday that a technical team from the commission would meet with state authorities, members of civil society and religious leaders today.
Alvaro Leiva, director of the Nicaraguan Pro-Human Rights Association, told Nicaraguans to be on alert for further violence, saying that more than 215 people have died since the unrest began.
“There’s a savage repression, there are executions, deaths, persecutions, kidnappings and a high risk of further bloodshed,” Leiva said.
A one-year-old was among those killed on Saturday.
The Nicaraguan police said the boy was struck by a bullet fired by a delinquent trying to prevent authorities from clearing road barricades in the capital, Managua.
However, his mother told a local TV station that police shot her son.
Two men were also shot dead nearby, local media reported.
The National Autonomous University of Nicaragua also came under attack early on Saturday.
Two students were killed, more than a dozen were wounded and at least six were missing, said priest Raul Zamora, who helped secure a ceasefire.
Students took over the state university in Managua nearly two months ago.
Two people were killed in the city of Masaya, where bishops had negotiated a truce just days earlier, the Red Cross said.
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
With a monthly pension barely sufficient to buy 15 eggs or a small bag of rice, Cuba’s elderly people struggle to make ends meet in one of Latin America’s poorest and fastest-aging countries. As the communist island battles its deepest economic crisis in three decades, the state is finding it increasingly hard to care for about 2.4 million inhabitants — more than one-quarter of the population — aged 60 and older. Sixty is the age at which women — for men it is 65 — qualify for the state pension, which starts at 1,528 pesos per month. That is less than US$13
RSS