Nicaragua yesterday marked the anniversary of its leftwing Sandinista revolution victory 39 years ago — but the commemorations were overshadowed by President Daniel Ortega’s deadly crackdown on opponents calling for his ouster.
At least 280 people have been killed, according to rights groups.
Several of the capital’s residents expressed disgust with their leader and his government. “We’re sick of the government. How can they do that to the students?” said one 17-year-old, Camila Orozco, sitting by a gas station. “This old man should go to hell. Here we don’t want to see him.”
Carla Patricia, 28, said: “The situation will calm when he goes. There’s nothing to celebrate, just ridiculous peasants who are being paid to party. The situation in the country is ugly. For me, there’s nothing to celebrate,” one street vendor, Eugenio Hernandez, 24, said.
Some said government workers were forced to turn out for the anniversary rally or risk their jobs.
But Ortega did receive full-throated support from a fellow Latin American leader: Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s socialist president who shares Ortega’s hostility towards the US.
Maduro tweeted: “We congratulate the heroic Nicaraguan people on the 39th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution.... Today, against imperial aggression, Nicaragua’s government has defeated the terrorist and coup-driven plot.” 
Since last week, Ortega has overseen an intense offensive against student protesters in Managua and against armed youths in Masaya, a city south of the capital that has become the main bastion of anti-Ortega sentiment.
The bloodshed of the past months has caused Ortega to lose vital support from the private business sector that held the economy together, and scuppered talks with opposition figures mediated by the Catholic Church.
International condemnation has stepped up, with the US and the Organisation of American States calling for an end to the crackdown and backing activist demands for early elections in the poor Central American country.
The United Nations’ human rights office this week said a mission sent to Nicaragua found a wide range of rights violations by Ortega’s regime, including killings, torture and arbitrary detentions.
The Nicaraguan government, though, dismisses the claims.
It has highlighted only the deaths of some police officers and supporters of Ortega’s Sandinista party. Vice President Rosario Murillo said the armed operation in Masaya foiled a “terrorist” plot against the government.
The assault ordered on Tuesday on Masaya’s flashpoint district of Monimbo lasted six hours, according to paramilitaries and residents. Trucks of jubilant pro-Ortega militia men were seen driving through the city afterward, wearing masks and carrying assault rifles.
Other paramilitaries hastily cleared battle debris and roadblocks to give the impression that normalcy had returned to Masaya. Although the paramilitaries denied any deaths had occurred, some locals spoke of many people killed.
A rights group said that at least one woman and a policeman died. Dozens of young people were said to have been taken away by Ortega’s forces.
Murillo said the government response to the opposition protests has been distorted by the media. “We proclaim our victory, our advance against these dark, diabolical forces that for three months have blocked and hijacked peace,” she told state media.


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