After bloody demonstrations, Nicaraguan president wants dialogue for peace



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Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced on Thursday that he would resume dialogue with opposition leaders who call for early elections after nearly a year struggling with one another. the worst crises in the country since the civil war 40 years ago.

According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an attempt to dialogue on social benefits broke out last May, resulting in protests that lasted for months, but collapsed under the brutal repression of the government that did the same. less than 320 dead and more than 600 others in prison

Ortega said in a speech that he would resume dialogue with his opponents next Wednesday.

"We will negotiate to strengthen peace," he said, adding that the protests were a plot to oust him. The leftist leader has also recently begun talks with the country's private sector.

Ortega took power for the first time in 1979 after the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship by Sandinista rebels. After losing his post in 1990, he was re-elected to the presidency in 2007. The next presidential election is scheduled for 2021.

Opposition leader Angel Rocha, who will speak on behalf of university students in dialogue alongside representatives of business and political leaders, said their pressing demand was that Mr Ortega frees people whom they consider to be political prisoners.

On Monday, a farm official who had protested against Ortega last year was sentenced to 216 years in prison, despite a provision in the Nicaraguan law limiting the sentence to 30 years.

Rocha said the opposition would also push for electoral reform, election transparency and justice for people who lost their lives in government reprisals against dissent.

Posted in Daily Times, February 23rd 2019.

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