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Masaya, Nicaragua – Forces loyal to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega seated their control of Masaya, an opposition stronghold, violently resumed yesterday, drawing international condemnation.
Blue T-shirt, balaclava and rifle in hand, dozens of paramilitaries patrolled pickup truck in the streets of the rebel Monimbo neighborhood, until the day before bristling with barricades, AFP found.
Others, leaning against walls covered with anti-Ortega graffiti, ate or rested. Police vehicles were visible, while residents were resuming their occupations and shops were raising their iron curtains.
Waving the red and black flag of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN, left), making the V of Victory or raising their fist, these men celebrated the success of their Tuesday operation.
" We proclaim our victory, our advance over these dark, evil forces, which for three months struck and confiscated peace ," Rosario Murillo, vice-president of Nicaragua, told reporters. wife of Mr. Ortega.
According to an NGO, some 200 residents of Masaya fled the city on Wednesday, pursued by pro-government forces.
" At the moment, these people who had taken refuge (in the vicinity of Masaya) are being chased by police and paramilitaries who use dogs to hunt them down ", said the leader of the Nicaraguan Association of Human Rights (ANPDH) Alvaro Leiva.
For several hours on Tuesday, the inhabitants of the indigenous district of Monimbo tried to resist behind their shelters with stones and mortars.
– " Do not kill my brother " –
The toll of clashes in this city of 100,000 inhabitants located about thirty kilometers from the capital Managua was far from clear. The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) was two dead, while the government spoke only of a policeman killed. A resident badured AFP that it was a " mbadacre ", while, according to a paramilitary, no one was killed.
" Yesterday (Tuesday), it was a battle of almost six hours, the idea was to dislodge (the rebels) to free the city from barricades ," told AFP Francisco, a 45-year-old paramilitary who participated in the fighting.
According to him, " the population appreciates and thanks ". Giovania Valitan is one of those.
" Thank God, everything has returned to normal and peace has come back, and these bad people must seek to repair the damage they have done (…) we want prosperity and work, nothing more, and that the tourists come back, that they are not afraid ", declares to AFP this woman of 34 years.
Others, like Livia Castillo, a 38-year-old housewife, believes that " we do not know (what will happen), I'm very scared, it never happened. have a 16 year old boy and I'm afraid they'll take him by force ".
In Managua, near El Chipote Prison where people were arrested in Masaya, their relatives were trying to get news.
" I will leave here when they will return " my two sons, said, with tears in their eyes, Rosa Briceño, 40: " They left alive without any scratches I want them back in the same state ".
" Please do not kill my brother ," a five-year-old boy begged five paramilitaries, hooded and armed with rifles, who violently broke into his house on Tuesday. neighborhood of Monimbo.
– Situation " alarming " –
The incursion to Masaya, which comes two days before the 39th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, is a snub to the international community, which has intensified these last days calls for the end of the repression.
The Organization of American States (OAS) on Wednesday approved a resolution condemning the crackdown and urged the government to agree with the opposition on an electoral calendar, a vote hailed on Twitter by the Vice President American Mike Pence as " a firm stance against state-sponsored violence " in Nicaragua.
The situation " is alarming and worsening day by day ," said Wednesday the secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Paulo Abrao, in an interview with the AFP.
" The behavior adopted by the government in recent days seems to be closing the door to dialogue spaces ," Abrao said of the small country in Central America where more than 280 people were killed in three months.
Several Nicaraguan opponents have denounced an attempt to criminalize protests calling for the departure of Mr. Ortega, after parliament's approval on Monday of a law on terrorism punishing up to 20 years in prison to the demonstrations or their supports.
A protest movement spearheaded by the students was launched on April 18 against the government of Daniel Ortega, a 72-year-old former guerrilla leader who has headed Nicaragua since 2007 after having previously 1979 to 1990.
M. Ortega is accused by the opposition of having set up with his wife Rosario Murillo a " dictatorship " marked by corruption and nepotism. Opponents demand early elections or departure.
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