Nicaraguan Protesters Attacked by Police Forces

Nicaraguan police forces have attacked anti-government protesters.

Two more anti-government protesters were injured by Nicaraguan police forces last Saturday, as the movement against President Daniel Ortega continues to grow.

These protests started as a movement against social security reforms put in place by the Ortega administration. Now, as Ortega serves his third consecutive presidential term, the protesters call for an end to his leadership and new elections. According to BBC, constitutional changes were made in both 2009 and 2016 to allow him to remain in power, a move critics have deemed illegal.

Ortega claims these changes were necessary to maintain stability. The anti-government movement in Nicaragua has taken a bloody turn since it began. According to Televisa, the government claims that about 200 people have been killed as a consequence of protesters’ “terrorist” actions in what they have claimed is a coup allegedly fueled by the United States.

While the current death toll of these protests is inaccessible, RPP reported in July 2018 that since April, there have been over 448 casualties. 

In the latest protests, demonstrators who took to the streets of Managua were met with police forces firing stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets.

In a video released by Al Jazeera, protester and former political prisoner Pedro Estrada can be seen with bloody gauze wrapped around his head as he describes the attacks: “One of their senior commanders grabbed one of those flash bangs and threw it directly on my forehead, and it exploded, and that got me disoriented and I passed out,’’ he said.

Despite Ortega outlawing anti-government protests in September 2018, as reported by El Pais, demands for an end to his presidency do not appear to be dying out.