Monday 22 September
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
Sandinista
Persecution Of Civil Society Turns
Violent In Nicaragua
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Forum
Grenade Explosion Kills
2, Injures 19 In Caracas
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Sandinista Persecution
Of Civil Society Turns
Violent In Nicaragua
By Tim Rogers,
Nica Times
Staff
GRANADA. Nicaragua
- Nicaragua's civil
unrest took another
dangerous turn over the
weekend when hundreds of
masked supporters of the
Sandinista National
Liberation Front (FSLN),
armed with machetes,
sticks and mortars,
closed off all entrances
to the northern city of
León to prevent an
announced march against
the government of
President Daniel Ortega.
While police stood
watching, the masked
“Orteguistas” -
pro-Ortega - squads
stopped traffic to
search vehicles for
anti-government
protesters, who were
prevented from entering
the city. The
Orteguistas, most
wearing FSLN hats and
T-shirts and chanting
revolutionary slogans,
threw metal jacks under
the tires of stopped
vehicles suspected of
carrying anti-government
protestors. The jacks
were meant to puncture
the suspected
protestors' tires if
they didn't turn back
toward Managua.
The tense situation grew
inevitably violent when
several left-wing
political leaders from
the Sandinista
Renovation Movement (MRS)
- a group of Sandinista
dissidents whom Ortega
has labeled "traitors"
and "sellouts" -
approached the entrance
to the city. Several of
the MRS leaders had
requested police
protection in
anticipation of
violence.
Yet even the police
presence wasn't enough
to stop the Orteguistas
from burning the vehicle
of MRS president Enrique
Sáenz, the previous
candidate for mayor of
Managua until the
Sandinista-controlled
Supreme Electoral
Council (CSE) withdrew
the MRS' legal status in
July.
When anti-riot police
were eventually called
in, the Orteguistas �
allegedly members of the
controversial Councils
of Citizen Power (CPCs),
led by the Sandinistas'
mayoral candidate for
León - attacked the
police line with sticks
and rocks, requiring the
police to respond with
tear gas to disperse the
rioters.
In all, five people were
injured but no one was
killed.
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