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Pro-government militias launched what witnesses described as a terrifying nighttime badault on a university campus at the heart of attempts to overthrow besieged President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua.
Hundreds of student rebels occupy the campus of Managua. of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (Unan) since the beginning of May as part of a national revolt intensifying against the former revolutionary hero who has now made more than 300 dead.
But on Friday, after renewed anti-Ortega protests across the country, police and paramilitary troops invaded the improvised barricades that students erected around their tree-lined university.
"This mbadacre must stop!" Silvio José Baez, Auxiliary Bishop of Managua, tweeted at dawn on Saturday after a rebel student, Gerald Vázquez, was reportedly shot in the head and died in a small
Much of the violence was concentrated on the Church of Divine Mercy, a small place of worship near one of the main entrances of Unan where Catholic leaders said about 100 rebels students – of them seriously wounded – took refuge after the badault on Friday night.
A demonstration in Managua, Nicaragua. "Our fight is to eliminate this diet." Photo: Jorge Torres / EPA
Throughout the night, students, clergy, doctors and a handful of Nicaraguan and foreign journalists found themselves stuck inside the church in the dark , with gunshots nearby.
"I need help to make this stop", tweeted Erick Alvarado Cole, the parish priest of the local parish. "Protect us, my Lord," he added in another message.
"It's like they wanted to murder all the students," said another priest, Raul Zamora, on local radio, according to the Washington Post.
Earlier, the students had broadcast heartbreaking farewell messages to their parents as they huddled behind the barricades and they were under fire. paramilitary bands known as "turbas".
"Please help us", a young woman pleads with the viewers, before adding: "Mom, forgive me, mom. I was just trying to defend my homeland. "
Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua. Photo: Rodrigo Sura / EPA
With a Washington Post correspondent among those who locked themselves in the church American politicians and diplomats condemned the attack.
"The Nicaraguan government must stop the slaughter of students and civil society," tweeted Carlos Trujillo, the US representative to the Organization of American States. "Those who are responsible for crimes against humanity will be held responsible."
Francisco Palmieri, a senior state department official, condemned what he called the "para-police" attack against Unan. "This violence to intimidate and repress the people must stop immediately."
Republican Senator Marco Rubio described the situation as "fast and dangerous escalation" and urged Ortega, president elected in 2006, to call his "thugs" . "If his violence leads to a bloodbath, he will face consequences," warns Rubio.
The Unan campus was occupied since May 7 and was one of three protest camps set up at local universities. April.
During a recent visit to the UN occupation, rebel students said they were determined to overthrow the Sandinista president of Nicaragua, who had helped overthrow the brutal dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979, but that they were accusing a wave of brutal repression. more than 300 dead, including a number of babies and teens.
"Our struggle is to eliminate this regime," said Armando Téllez, a freshman in economics in charge of the Unan camp. "People have woken up – and there is no way to make them sleep."
University students and anti-government protesters entered the Autonomous University of Nicaragua. Photography: Esteban Felix / AP
A masked abandonment of the chemistry that held the barricades of wood and concrete just outside the Divine Mercy Church, said, "We defend democracy in our country … I am ready, physically and psychologically, for any disaster "
In the early hours of Saturday, Partlow tweeted that he had been able to leave the church.But the badault seemed continue, tirelessly. "For breakfast, they gave us a shower of bullets," tweeted Ismael López, a Nicaraguan journalist still trapped inside
90 minutes later, López published a photograph or a black body bag covering a corpse whose face had been covered with the blue and white flag of Nicaragua.
"Gerald was from Masaya, he was 20 years old and he was studying construction in Unan ", says the accompanying message.
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