Ortega dissolves the last bastion of student resistance

The violent attack on a university and parish to expel 200 young people muertos dos

MANAGUA.- Even the sacred places were spared this time of the violence that shook Nicaragua since mid-April, when the repressive wave of the regime of Daniel Ortega began against the demonstrators demanding his exit from power . [19659005Dansl'undeschapitreslesplussanglantsduconflitquiopposelasociétécivileaurégimesandinisteenviron200étudiantsontétéexpulsésavecdesballesdepuislesiègedel'UniversiténationaleautonomeduNicaragua(UNAN)oùilsétaientréfugiésetlefeumêmeaprèsavoirtrouvérefugedansuneparoissevoisineLesiègeafaitdeuxmortsquatredisparusetplusieursblesséscertainsgrièvement

L & # 39; UNAN was the last bastion of student resistance, spearheaded the movement that put Ortega pressure. The crackdown on protests killed about 270 people in almost three months.

Yesterday, only the mediation of Nicaraguan Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes and Apostolic Nuncio Stanislaw Sommertag prevented the bloodbath from developing and ensured the safety of the students, who finished their odyssey in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua, where they were left to their homes in principle without being the object of other hostilities. "We ask God to accompany us, we will save our boys and in this way contribute" Sommertag said that the fate of the students, entrenched in the parish of Divine Mercy, the church punished by the shooters elite, was still uncertain.

Among these four walls stitched with bullets, where they even fired against a stained glbad window of Mary and Child Jesus, also a journalist
The Washington Post and another from the BBC, which came out thanks to the priest. "They were shooting us to death, it was very hard, they were with high caliber weapons and only with mortars," said a student to the press once he was safe in the La metropolitan cathedral, where they arrived by bus and escorted by ambulances and the ecclesiastical suite.

There was, of course, no police escort since mid-April, with the outbreak of citizen demonstrations and organized repression. the aggressor forces with the paramilitary groups

The raid triggered the day before yesterday aimed above all the university, taken by the students for two months and which underwent a decisive badault. But this attack was only the beginning. The sight of the snipers, posted on the windows and terraces of the neighboring buildings, deviated only a few meters and looked for their next target, the Church of the Divine Mercy, which did not resist either. l & # 39; attack.

They were evacuated from the church by the Red Cross. "You have to get everyone out!" Says the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Báez.

A TV reporter who has been locked up with students since last night said that the snipers They fired for over 12 hours and even threw Molotov badtails around the temple, where another victim fell. "At dawn, we discovered the body of another student on the edge of the church," tells the chronicler of the chain 15.

Raids of government forces took place during a day-long strike, the second in three months of protests against Ortega, which in addition to 270 deaths left 2100 injured and about 500 inmates, most of the students.

Former supporters of the Sandinista government of Ortega, especially for their revolutionary past and their left flags, the students turned their backs and they became their fiercest enemies angry at the fierce crackdown, which began on April 18, when they submitted to the peaceful marches that questioned a pension reform

student militancy and broad sectors of civil society, as well as Amnesty International and human rights agencies of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the UN are asking Ortega to stop the crackdown in which among others, Sandinista Youth participates as a shock force. So far, however, the intimidation strategy has not yielded results and protests continue to call for early elections

The social epidemic that shakes the Nicaragua

270 dead

Human rights organizations count about 270 dead because of the wave of violence in Nicaragua, although some increase the number to 350, the majority being in the hands security forces. Sandinista and shock groups; there are more than 2100 wounded in almost three months of protests

11 years

After having commanded the Sandinista revolution, which took power in Nicaragua in 1979, Daniel Ortega returned to the presidency in such a way democratic 11 years ago, in a management that became hegemonic and authoritarian

The origin of the revolt

Protests began with a decree of Ortega