The death toll from a week of brutally repressed anti-government protests in Nicaragua has risen to at least 34, a leading rights group in the country said yesterday.
The count, by the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), was a hike from its previous figure of 27.
The group said it had found more bodies in Managua’s state morgue of people previously reported missing, and had also added people who had died of wounds sustained in the protests.
President Daniel Ortega’s government put out its own toll on Friday, counting 10 deaths. It has not released any updated figure since.
The protests were triggered by pension reforms that Ortega ended up withdrawing as condemnation of harsh police tactics against the demonstrators – including firing weapons – mounted.
Other grievances over the president’s rule for the past 11 years then surfaced, notably resentment at the aloof and authoritarian style of Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, who is also his vice president.
By early yesterday, it appeared the protests were subsiding after Ortega made a series of concessions, including freeing arrested protesters, lifting curbs on independent media and calling for dialogue.
Ortega’s wife Murillo, who days ago called the protesters “vampires,” changed her tune on Tuesday to tell them there was “faith that we are going to go forward united.” 
Meanwhile the US has accused Nicaragua’s government of “repugnant” violence and repression against the protesters.
The broadside, delivered in a White House statement, was the strongest international criticism yet against Ortega and his administration since the unrest erupted a week ago.
“The repugnant political violence by police and pro-government thugs against the people of Nicaragua, particularly university students, has shocked the democratic international community,” the White House statement said.
The US condemned the violence, repression and the closing of media outlets, it added, calling for “broad-based dialogue and support for the people of Nicaragua, who yearn for the political freedom of expression and true democratic reforms they so richly deserve.”
The US embassy has already withdrawn staff family members and non-essential personnel.
“This has become a national wave of protests against repression, censorship of the media, reduced civil and political freedoms, and against the abuse of force by some of the authorities,” said Juan Felipe Celia, of the Latin America Center of the Washington-based think tank the Atlantic Council.
A pro-government rally was being organised for today to show that the president still enjoyed backing from part of the population. The head of the powerful COSEP council of private business leaders, Jose Aguerri, said he thought conditions were coming together for dialogue to possibly start.


Related Story