Nicaragua halfway protests against Daniel Ortega

Managua.- Markets, banks, shops, petrol stations and small food stores did not open this Friday in the cities of Nicaragua, hailing a strike launched by the opposition to pressure President Daniel Ortega. who, in counter-offensive, will mobilize his supporters.

Many companies remain closed to support the opposition but also for fear of looting or assault, amid overwhelming violence that leaves some 270 dead in three months of protests against the government

"I work by necessity, but unemployment is a weapon to put pressure on the government, because this situation has no end, the poor are the ones who die," said Adolfo Diaz, 67 . years, in a lonely hall of the Huembes market, east of Managua, of 4500 companies.

The 24-hour strike called by the National Alliance for Justice and Democracy, which it uses civil society groups, started at 00:00 this Friday (local time), supported by leadership companies.

The financial system, private schools and shopping centers have ceased operations. Only petrol stations are open.

There are few passengers at bus stops.

The strike, a little less than that of June 14, which killed four, is the second of three days of pressure from the Alliance.

On Thursday, there were parades in towns and cities, with a death toll of five. four policemen and a civilian – in a municipality in the southeast of the country, and on Saturday the opponents will go by caravan of vehicles through the eastern neighborhoods of Managua.

Opponents demand justice, early elections or resignation from Ortega, who accused of triggering a fierce crackdown on protests and creating a dictatorship with his wife Rosario Murillo, marked by corruption and nepotism.

THE "REPLIEGUE"

In the middle of the strike, Ortega will lead in the afternoon, the historic "Retiegue", which commemorates each year a guerrilla act before the triumph of the popular uprising which, led by the Sandinista National Front of Liberation (FSLN), overthrew the dictator Anastasio Somoza in 19 79.

The "retreat" of 27 June 1979, where thousands of guerrillas from Managua retreated to Masaya to regroup their forces before overthrowing Somoza, is commemorated annually by a march towards this city, the most rebellious in the world. But before the tension and violence experienced in Nicaragua, the celebration is postponed and it will be a caravan to the north entrance of Masaya, because in the south of the city is the combative indigenous neighborhood. Monimbó, entrenched against the combined forces of Ortega (police and paramilitary).

"Retreat with Daniel (…) because we are winning peace." The march to the victories does not stop, "said Murillo at the announcement of the event, although opponents believe that without going to Monimbó or hiking, it is a kind of defeat for the government.

The neighborhood is in a state of alert.