Journalist among over 2 dozen killed in Nicaragua unrest

FILE: In the grainy, nighttime video, journalist Angel Gahona, clad in jeans and a blue shirt, holds up a cellphone and narrates as he approaches the facade of city hall in Bluefields, Nicaragua, reporting live via Facebook on protests that have rocked the Central American nation for four days. (Photo by jeanbaptisteparis/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

MEXICO CITY — In the grainy, nighttime video, journalist Angel Gahona, clad in jeans and a blue shirt, holds up a cellphone and narrates as he approaches the facade of city hall in Bluefields, Nicaragua, reporting live via Facebook on protests that have rocked the Central American nation for four days.

Seconds later a gunshot rings out and Gahona slumps lifeless to the curb. Voices cry his name and someone presses a piece of cloth to his head to try to staunch the stream of blood. Another Bluefields reporter, Ileana Lacayo, confirms that he died before reaching the hospital.

Besides Gahona at least 25 others have been killed since Wednesday in unrest over social security reforms planned by President Daniel Ortega’s government, according to a human rights group. Dozens more have been injured or arrested.

Ortega said Saturday in his first public appearance since the demonstrations began that his government is willing to enter into talks over the dispute. In a nationally televised address, he said he is open to negotiations so that there is “no more terror for Nicaraguan families.”

But he said the dialogue would be just with business leaders and not with other sectors of society. He also seemed to try to justify what has been a heavy-handed response by the government and allied groups, accusing demonstrators, most of them university students, of being manipulated by unspecified “minority” political interests and of being infiltrated by gangsters.

“What is happening in our country has no name. The kids do not even know the party that is manipulating them. … Gang members are being brought into the kids’ protests and are criminalizing the protests. That is why they are put at risk,” Ortega said.

Those remarks appeared to fan the flames, as soon afterward thousands of people spilled back into the streets in seven cities including the capital, Managua, after tensions had calmed somewhat Friday night.

“We are in the streets asking for Ortega and his wife to go. This has already gone beyond the social security issue. Here there have been dead, wounded, and he does not even apologize for his killings or the savage repression against the people,” said Mauri Hernandez, one of thousands of demonstrators at a central rotunda.

On Friday night Vice-President, first lady and government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo said nine people had been confirmed dead in the clashes, though the human rights group Cenidh said Saturday it had counted at least 25 deaths nationwide.

Minutes later news emerged of the killing of Gahona, who worked for the news show Meridiano. In a separate video that he himself filmed, he showed damage to an ATM as riot police advanced up a darkened street.

The source of the gunshot was not discernible in either of the videos, but Lacayo was quoted by La Prensa newspaper as saying that police were the only ones carrying weapons at the scene.

A prominent business chamber issued a statement conditioning its talks with Ortega on an end to repression, the freeing of detained protesters and respect for freedom of expression as the authorities have kept off the air one private news channel that is covering the protests.

“We cannot go into a dialogue if these minimal conditions are not met,” it said.

There were more clashes at the Polytechnical University of Nicaragua, one of the strongest bastions of the protesters.

“We stand firm. They will not wear us out. Here we will give our all until the government understands that it will not continue to do whatever it pleases,” Lombardo Ruiz Picado, a leader of the student protesters, told The Associated Press by phone from inside the school.

In the morning, army troops were deployed to Esteli, a city north of Managua that has been a main flashpoint of the demonstrations, to help police repel protesters.

State-affiliated media showed images of armed soldiers patrolling the city centre and said they were safeguarding strategic concerns after fires at several public buildings.

The Roman Catholic Conference of Bishops in Nicaragua condemned repression against protesters and urged the government to listen to them and drop the social security reforms.

“A unilateral decision always brings with it social instability. Rectifying decisions is a sign of humanity, listening is the path of reason, seeking peace at all cost is wisdom,” the conference said in a statement.

The reforms, issued by decree, increase income and payroll taxes and make changes to pensions to try to shore up Nicaragua’s troubled social security system.