Police dispersed by violent protest after Catholic procession in Nicaragua

Opponents infiltrated the religious procession and reached the atrium of Managua Cathedral chanting slogans against the Ortega government, accused of the deaths of more than 300 Nicaraguans during the crackdown on protests. last year.

"We are asking Ortega to leave, we are tired, we are fed up," AFP engineer María Alonso told AFP during the procession.

At the end of the religious activity, protesters went to one of the adjacent streets of the cathedral to continue demonstrating but were repressed by the police, AFP said.

Before the attack, the opponents defended themselves by throwing stones and quickly retreated into the church patios.

The incident, which left no wounded or detained, took place after thousands of Catholic parishioners took part in the procession of the Blood of Christ to keep their promises and pray for peace in Nicaragua.

"Cry of freedom"

Police said in a statement that a "group of people armed with stones, mortars and some with guns wanted to handle the path of the cross" on Good Friday.

And Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Kimberly Breier questioned the police response to protesters.

"Such desperate attempts to maintain power expose Ortega's hypocrisy and weakness to the demand for freedom of the Nicaraguan people," Breier said on Twitter.

Opponents said they joined the procession to commemorate the first anniversary of the anti-government protests, as the last marches they had attempted to hold in the capital on that occasion had been disavowed by the police.

"Democracy yes, no dictatorship!", "They leave!", Applauded the opponents during the Via Crucis, during which the police refrained from intervening because of the presence of thousands of parishioners.

At the end of the religious activity, protesters remained on the church grounds shouting slogans, while relatives of children with children killed at previous demonstrations have asked with a cross in hand the punishment of those responsible for the repression.

"I want justice done for Marlon, who died of an elite sniper ball a year ago" while he was protesting at a university, said his Aunt Carolina Ramírez, who advocated a "free Nicaragua".

Beside him, a young man with a face covered with a t-shirt said that they were fighting for "the freedom of all political prisoners and the departure of Ortega, because he is a criminal".

The crackdown on protests has left at least 325 dead, hundreds of detainees, more than 62,000 exiles and serious damage to the economy, according to figures from humanitarian and UN agencies.