03:14 – Nicaragua: attacks by government forces kill at least 10 people, targeted bishop

At least 10 people were killed and 20 wounded in government-run attacks Sunday in rebel-held rebels in southern Nicaragua, where a bishop's vehicle was shot.

These are the latest episodes in the violence that has shaken the country for three months, the poorest in Central America, and have totaled at least 282 dead and some 2,000 injured.

Six civilians, including two minors, and four policemen were killed on Sunday in police and paramilitary forces operations in Masaya, a beleaguered rebel city, located some 30 kilometers south of the capital Managua. its surroundings, according to a provisional record of the Nicaraguan Association of Human Rights (ANPDH). The localities of Niquinohomo, Catarina, Diria and Diriomo have been targeted.

Residents have reported that these detachments used shovels in the early hours of the day to destroy barricades, attacking their defenders.

"They will destroy (the city of) Masaya, it is totally encircled, "said Vilma Nunez, president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh).

" We are attacked by the police and armed police auxiliaries of AK-47 and machine guns in our district of Monimbo ", in the south of the department of Masaya, has meanwhile declared Alvaro Gomez, a resident. "We resist with homemade bombs and stones," he added.

"The situation is serious", "We must open a corridor (humanitarian) to evacuate the wounded," said Alvaro Leiva, the secretary of the Nicaraguan Association of Human Rights.

"Intercepted by paramilitaries"

Moreover, paramilitaries opened fire on the vehicle aboard which was Mgr Abelardo Mata, a Nicaraguan bishop who was heading for Masaya, said officials of the Catholic Church, according to which he is safe and sound

Mata Mata, very critical of the government of Daniel Ortega, is one of the five dignitaries of the Church who mediate between the government and the opposition in Nicaragua.

"He was intercepted by paramilitaries who ransacked his car, smashed windows and wanted to burn it," said bishop Roberto Petray's badistant.

Archbishop of Managua Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes also denounced an incursion of government forces into the presbytery of Catarua, and called on the government to "respect" religious buildings and "stop attacks on the population."

Secretary of the Inter-American Commission Human Rights (IACHR), Paulo Abrao, said on his side on Twitter that he was aware of the "violent repression of the population of Masaya.The state seems to ignore the dialogue" with the opposition.

Before the attacks, several civil society organizations had left Managua to go to Masaya in a "caravan of solidarity" but turned around ten kilometers before arriving because of the presence of paramilitaries Lesther Aleman, the student leader said,

El 19 Digital's official website called the "liberated territories" dams erected by the rebels, the cities where government forces carried out the "cleansing operation". "

Masaya, Nicaragua's most rebellious city, is the epicenter of the protest movement, spearheaded by students, launched on April 18 against the government of President Daniel Ortega.

The latter, 72 years old and head of his country since 2007, having already directed from 1979 to 1990, is accused of having harshly repressed demonstrations and set up with his wife Rosario Murillo , who serves as vice-president, a "dictatorship" marked by corruption and nepotism. His opponents call for early elections or his departure.

On the night of Friday to Saturday, two young people were killed during a violent attack by pro-government forces against a church in Managua, where some 200 students were killed.

"We have witnessed the lack of political will of the government to sincerely dialogue and seek concrete processes that would lead us to true democracy," the Catholic bishops said Saturday in a statement.