Roadblocks Intensify Nationwide in Nicaragua

Ever since Monday evening, residents in the Nicaraguan department of Carazo have a roadblock up again at Las Esquinas, one of this department’s main access points and the only one which had been left open.

“There’s no way out for us and we couldn’t travel to Managua, not even along the pavement like we have been doing all of this time,” Socorro, a young woman from Jinotepe who works in Managua, says.

Dozens of residents walk along the Diriamba, San Marcos, Dolores and Jinotepe highways to try and reach their workplaces because you can’t travel in a car in any of these cities. Trucks heading to Costa Rica have been stranded for two days now and some entry points to different municipalities have been barricaded so as to prevent vehicles from entering and leaving.

Diriamba’s three gas stations are already beginning to run out of fuel and some only have a bit of diesel left for a few more days. “They told us there isn’t any because tanker trucks haven’t been able to get here,” a driver from Diriamba told CONFIDENCIAL.

Nationwide

In the face of Daniel Ortega’s government’s abuses against the Nicaraguan people, “the only way out” left to us “are the streets,” said Medardo Mairena, an anti-canal rural leader and member on the now suspended National Dialogue. 

Rural leader Francisca Ramirez agrees with him noting that the roadblocks are a legitimate form of protest in her eyes and a way to create pressure to prevent more abuses of power and murders.

“The only solution we have left is to take to the streets, setting up roadblocks to defend ourselves from the Government and the violence of its repressive forces,” she pointed out. In fact, on Tuesday, it was revealed that at least 70% of Nicaraguan roads have been blocked, completely or staggered. 

Ramirez said that more and more people are joining the roadblock protest every day and that many of them are calling for a “general strike”. There are now at least 40 self-organized roadblocks which are demanding a response from the Nicaraguan Government.

Citizen reports

After more than a month since protests first broke out in Nicaragua, many of the country’s municipalities woke up on Tuesday to staggered roadblocks and a call for the population to join these protests.

In Leon, citizens are reporting blockades on highways which are connected to the capital, even though they open it every three hours.

Roadblocks have also been set up on the exit towards Chinandega and another was put up at the Nagarote entrance on Monday.

There has been a roadblock at the Empalme de Boaco crossroads for two weeks now. “We are going to continue to protest against Ortega’s regime,” one of the protest leaders told Confidencial.

“We have a staggered roadblock which allows vehicles to pass by to make sure there are no shortages,” he explained.

In the country’s interior, there are roadblocks at the Juigalpa exit to Managua, the Santo Domingo entrance and at Empalme de Lovago, where hundreds of farmers have joined the protests.

On the other hand, in Rivas, the roadblock at km 108 on the South Panamerican highway is into its sixth day.