NGOs and the United Nations have condemned the harsh repression by Nicaraguan president Ortega against students who have been calling for his resignation for months.
Last spring, the Monimbo neighbourhood of the city of Masaya, in Nicaragua, felt like a journey back forty years in time. It was here, some thirty kilometres from the capital Managua, that the first popular uprising in support of the Sandinista revolution was born in February 1978 — the revolt that brought Daniel Ortega, the current president of the Latin American nation, to power.
Since then, the government has never changed. After four decades, however, it is beginning to show cracks. On 19 July, the South American leader celebrated the 39th anniversary of the "Revolución". But his thoughts, like those of his wife Rosario Murillo, his vice-president, were focused above all on the social movement that has been calling for months for the removal of the regime's leaders, a regime judged to be "authoritarian" and "corrupt".
The revolt began at the start of April. At the time, a massive fire had just devastated, in less than a week, around 5,000 hectares of one of the continent's principal tropical forests: the Indio Maíz reserve, in southern Nicaragua. A large group of students from Managua's Central American University (semi-private and Jesuit-inspired) decided to take to the streets to protest against the government's "lack of preparedness" in the face of the natural disaster, and its decision not to accept the international assistance offered by Costa Rica.
This was, however, merely a casus belli (or a pretext, according to Ortega's supporters). Evidence of this lies in the fact that, a few days later, the approval of a pension and welfare reform in Nicaragua persuaded other young people — and not only young people — to join the protest. Students from other universities took to the streets, and the movement quickly spread to most of the country's higher education institutions, spreading to the rest of society as well.
The first clashes in the streets with groups defending Ortega then broke out. Ortega himself, faced with the breadth and determination of the protest movement, initially decided to withdraw the reform, hoping this might dampen the uprising. He then organised meetings with the revolt's leaders in an attempt to mediate. But by pointing to corruption, the concentration of power at the top and the deteriorating living conditions of the population, the students decided to maintain their demand for resignation.
The presidential couple's stance then hardened considerably. The demands of the youth movement — which marches every week chanting "El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido" (The people united will never be defeated) — were branded "an attempt at a coup d'état". The students were called "terrorists". And the United States was described as a nation that had worked to foment the uprising. Police were then ordered to carry out a severe crackdown, condemned by Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, head of the United Nations Human Rights office.
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In the small nation of six million inhabitants, within the space of a few months, more than 300 students were killed, according to Amnesty International. The non-governmental organisation accused Ortega and his wife of having sown terror across the country: "They chose the path of a repressive and persecutory strategy." The organisation also spoke of arbitrary arrests, the use of lethal weapons, firing into crowds, the extensive deployment of the army, and threats against the families of demonstrators who had been killed or imprisoned. A United Nations report also speaks of violations and abuses.
Thousands have been injured. And some of the protest's leaders are currently living underground. As reported by the Franco-German public television channel Arte, they have rented accommodation under false names and are living in hiding for fear of being arrested or killed. Others have fled to Costa Rica, requesting recognition as refugees. Amnesty also speaks of five alleged "summary executions", including that of a 16-year-old teenager, Leyting Chavarria. "The evidence in our possession," the NGO added, "indicates that none of the victims posed a threat. They were killed deliberately."
