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Paris (AFP)
Visiting Nicaraguan opposition leaders have called on Europe to impose sanctions on the government of President Daniel Ortega after months of human rights violations and repression of protests.
Demonstrations erupted 11 months ago, initially against a pension reform before turning into a general opposition to Ortega's iron rule, provoking a brutal crackdown on security that has claimed the lives of more than 300 people and arrested more than 700 people.
Peace talks with the Ortega government began late last month, but the opposition Nicaraguan alliance suspended its participation on Monday to protest the crackdown on protesters.
"We need the world to hear the cry of Nicaragua, we need them to help us find a solution as quickly as possible," AFP Francisca Ramirez told AFP on Monday. of the alliance of the opposition.
Ramirez, who is also a farmer, environmental lawyer Monica Lopez Baltodano and feminist leader Maria Teresa Blandon are currently on a 40-day tour of Europe with stops in Germany, Belgium and Switzerland to rally support of opposition.
"What happened Saturday shows that Daniel Ortega has no intention of negotiating in good faith," Ramirez said, denouncing the government's "excessive use of force."
Talks began on February 27, but met the fate of more than 700 people arrested between April and October during protests that claimed the lives of 325 people.
"We can not return to the negotiating table without solving the problems of prisoners and the right of free badembly," said Blandon.
"There are red lines that we can not cross."
– "Moved too slowly" –
The political crisis in Nicaragua began last April when protests against social security reform erupted, killing nearly 30 people.
The government subsequently banned political protests and Ortega repeatedly rejected calls for early elections, which should not be held until 2021.
Although the US government condemned the violence and rights violations, opposition leaders said that Europe should exert more pressure on the Ortega government.
The EU "acted too slowly," said Blandon, urging her to take "a clear stance".
The European Parliament urged European governments last week to impose sanctions on Nicaragua, "and we now hope that European governments will act," she added.
"If the international community allows this to happen, there will be more situations like that in Nicaragua," she warned.
The wave of dissent in Nicaragua is the most violent since the end of the three decades of revolutionary unrest in 1990.
Ortega, who headed the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front of the Revolution, was re-elected in 2006 with only 38% of the vote.
The former leftist guerrilla leader and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who holds the position of vice president, are increasingly accused of attacks on their rights and an authoritarian regime.
? AFP 2019
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