Nicaragua: Cyber-Savvy
Youth Protest Ortega
Taking a tip from their
counterparts in
Colombia, young
opponents of President
Daniel Ortega in
Nicaragua used Facebook
to launch a protest
campaign - under the
slogan "Democracy yes,
dictatorship no."
The most recent protest
June 20 brought out some
4,000 in downtown
Managua in support of
former Sandinsita
commandante Dora María
Téllez, who ended a
12-day public hunger
strike four days earlier
at the request of her
doctors.
Téllez began her hunger
strike after the Supreme
Electoral Council upheld
the government's
cancellation of the
legal party status of
her Sandinista
Renovation Movement (MRS)
and the Conservative
Party (PC). (
In 2005, Téllez was
denied entry to the US
to take up her post as a
Harvard professor on the
grounds that she had
been involved in
"terrorism."
Ortega sparked a
diplomatic flap when he
called Colombian leader
Alvaro Uribe a
"terrorist" for ordering
the bombing of a
guerilla camp inside
Ecuador in March.
"He says he's fighting
terrorism but he's the
terrorist," Ortega said
at a meeting in Managua
attended by survivors of
the raid. Colombia shot
back a letter to
Nicaragua "rejecting
most energetically"
Ortega's comments. |
