Nicaraguan Protestors Defy Police and Paramilitary Siege

The government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo deployed dozens of patrol vehicles and hundreds of police and paramilitaries in Managua on Saturday, but could not prevent hundreds of Nicaraguan citizens from demonstrating at four points in the capital.

Not even the heavy rain prevented citizens from demonstrating against the Ortega dictatorship. Photo: Carlos Herrera

At the four designated points in the center of the capital citizens waved their blue and white flags.

Protesters pray the Our Father, during the concentration in the Pellas building. Photo: Carlos Herrera

Police hurled stun grenades, tear gas, and shot with marble guns, causing two injuries. They also deployed trained dogs to contain the protesters, keeping them from going out in the streets. The demonstrators paid tribute to student Matt Romero – killed by the regime on September 23, 2018 in Managua – and denounced that “Nothing is normal” under a dictatorship in Nicaragua.

The government claims that the country is back to normal after its forces squashed an alleged coup attempt.

olitical activist, Felix Maradiaga, who just returned from exile, tries to cross a riot barrier. Photo: Carlos Herrera

After the demonstrators said a prayer, sang the national anthem and raised the Nicaraguan flag (all considered subversive acts by the Ortega-Murillo government), dozens of riot police stationed at the entrance of the Pellas building blocked their passage to the street. After verbal protests from the citizens, the officers hurled stun grenades.

Police officers and riot police pushing the citizens trying to march freely, a constitutional right. Photo: Carlos Herrera

One of the injured is the former political prisoner Pedro Estrada, hit on the head by a stun grenade. The other injured person is a woman, who passed out. The other opponents dispersed and took refuge in the building, without major incidents.

Young people attend to the former political prisoner, Pedro Estrada, who was wounded in the head by a stun grenade. Photo: Carlos Herrera

On the side of the Movistar building, dozens of opponents gathered and shouted slogans against the Ortega Government and calling for the release of the political prisoners, and justice for the victims of the protests. The police threw stun grenades, but no citizens were injured.

Police officers along with motorized paramilitaries surround Plaza Vistana, near the Central America roundabout. Photos: Carlos Herrera.

The Blue and White National Unity movement and the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy, two of Nicaragua’s most visible opposition groups, called the demonstration to demand the restoration of constitutional rights in the country, which is experiencing its worst socio-political crisis in decades.