MANAGUA (Reuters) - At least fifteen people were killed and more than 200 injured on Wednesday in one of the worst days of violence since protests against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega began more than a month ago, police said on Thursday.

A man stands next to a burned car after a protest against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's government in Managua, Nicaragua May 31, 2018.REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas

The bloodshed was condemned by the Central American country’s Episcopal conference of Catholic bishops, which called it “organized and systematic aggression” and suspended talks with the government that had been scheduled for Thursday.

Witnesses said pro-government armed groups opened fire on the marchers during a demonstration on Wednesday, Nicaragua’s Mother’s Day. The march was held to remember the children who were among more than 80 killed since the start of protests.

“The number of people killed as a product of the actions of delinquent groups who operate wearing masks is 15,” said National Police Sub-Director Francisco Diaz, saying seven of those died in the capital, Managua. He said 218 people were injured.

The army said it was treating some of the injured, including several police officers.

Local human rights organization CENIDH, in a statement, said that Wednesday’s events had led to 16 deaths, and that 100 people had been killed since the protests began.

The government denied allegations by rights groups that the aggressors were government supporters and said it bore no responsibility for the violence since the student-led protests started in April, triggered by proposed changes to the social security system.

The European Parliament on Thursday condemned what it called “brutal repression” in Nicaragua and called for elections, echoing calls for Ortega to move the 2021 presidential election earlier.

In a sign Ortega was responding to international pressure, the government and the Organization of American states issued a statement saying the head of the electoral commission, Roberto Rivas, had resigned.

In December, the United States imposed sanctions on Rivas, citing allegations he amassed wealth beyond his income including private jets and yachts, and accusing him of electoral fraud.

Ortega was elected for a third consecutive term in 2016 with more than 70 percent of the vote, a result questioned by observers who said the government had suppressed opposition.

In a letter to Ortega published on Wednesday, business association COSEP urged the 72-year-old president to push up the 2021 vote to a date agreed on by the government and civilian representatives.</s>Managua — The death toll from weeks of violent unrest in Nicaragua rose to 100 by Thursday as embattled President Daniel Ortega rejected calls to step down and the Catholic Church, which has tried to mediate the conflict, refused to resume the dialogue.

At least 16 people were killed and 88 injured on Wednesday and into the early hours of Thursday as pro-and anti-government supporters clashed in a number of cities, the Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights said in an update on Thursday.

It said this was one of the most violent days yet in a wave of protests against Ortega and his ruling party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front, that began on April 18. More than 900 people have been injured.

The protests were initially triggered by now-aborted reforms to the near-bankrupt social security system. But the unrest quickly broadened into a rejection by many Nicaraguans of Ortega and his wife, Vice-President Rosario Murillo, who are seen as autocratic.

The government and opposition agreed on Monday to resume peace talks mediated by the Catholic Church that stalled last week.

But the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference announced on Thursday that it would not resume the dialogue as long as "the people continue to be repressed and killed" by "groups close to the government".

The Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights said the latest killings occurred in the capital Managua and the cities of Esteli and Masaya, while incidents also took place in Leon.

"The aggressors were the repressive police and shock forces" who report to Ortega and his wife, according to the rights group.

"Massacre! Shots are being fired against peaceful demonstrators," Managua’s auxiliary bishop, Silvio Baez, wrote on social media.

The head of the Organisation of American States, Luis Almagro, has condemned the killings by "repressive forces and the armed forces", and called on Ortega’s government to stop the violence.

The US State Department issued a statement condemning the "government’s violent response to peaceful Mother’s Day marches in Managua and other cities yesterday, including assaults on mothers mourning their children killed since protests began April 18".

Ortega, meanwhile, denounced a "conspiracy" by the opposition aimed at "terrorising" the people, referring to Wednesday’s unrest.

"There are no shock forces or paramilitaries close to the government, so we cannot accept that we are accused of tragic and painful events that we have not provoked and we would never provoke," he said in a statement.

Installations of the official radio station Radio Ya and a rural credit co-operative were burned, and the facade of the national baseball stadium was destroyed.

Offices of the opposition channel 100% Noticias, censored for several days in mid-April by the authorities because of its coverage of demonstrations, and the transmission installations of the opposition radio station Dario in Leon were also attacked, their owners reported.

Deputy national police director Francisco Diaz said "criminal groups" had attacked a pro-government event in Managua "with firearms and mortars," leaving seven dead and 91 injured by gunfire, including 20 policemen.

The opposition said on Wednesday that one person died when pro-government activists opened fire in Managua on a rally in support of mothers who have lost children in the protests.

The unrest poses the biggest crisis ever faced by Ortega, a former guerrilla leader who first ruled between 1979 and 1990 before returning as president 11 years ago.

In a speech to thousands of supporters in Managua Wednesday night, he vowed to remain in power.

"Nicaragua belongs to all of us, and here we are all going to stay," said Ortega.

The speech came a day after the country’s richest and most influential businessman appealed for presidential elections to be moved forward from 2021 in a bid to calm the unrest.

The comments by Carlos Pellas, who controls the vast Grupo Pellas empire, came as a surprise as the powerful industrialist and other business leaders have traditionally supported Ortega.

"From my point of view, and it is something largely shared in the private sector, we must find an orderly way out of this, in a constitutional way, which implies reforms including a (presidential) election moved forward" from 2021, he said in an interview with newspaper La Prensa.

Ortega must "show the willingness to dialogue and accept fundamental changes", said Pellas, who has not previously spoken out publicly about the crisis.</s>Nicaraguan bishops have announced they are abandoning peace talks with the embattled administration of president Daniel Ortega after at least 11 people were killed and 79 wounded during the latest mass protest against his rule.

Tens of thousands of dissenters poured on to the streets of the capital, Managua, on Wednesday afternoon to mark Nicaragua’s Mother’s Day with a massive demonstration against Ortega’s 11-year reign.

The protest – dubbed “The Mother of All Marches” – was led by the mothers of some of the 83 protesters who have been killed since the uprising began on 18 April.

But an initially peaceful procession descended into violence after armed pro-Ortega forces opened fire on protesters, activists said. The Associated Press reported that demonstrators armed with improvised bottle-rocket launchers also opened fire. 



“There are 79 people injured and 11 dead, including a young man who was shot in the head,” José Miguel Vivanco, Human Rights Watch’s Americas director, tweeted on Thursday. 



Paulo Abrão, head of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, tweeted: “We have received SERIOUS claims of deaths and injuries due to the violence.”

The Managua-based opposition newspaper La Prensa accused Ortega of transforming the peaceful demonstration into “a bloodbath”. “Due to the situation of insecurity that reined throughout the night it was difficult to arrive at the exact number of fatal victims,” it said.

Senior members of Nicaragua’s Catholic church began mediating peace talks between Ortega and the student-led protesters on 16 May, with protesters using the dialogue to berate their unpopular president and their first lady, Rosario Murillo, as asesinos (murderers).

However, in a statement on Thursday, members of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua said those talks could not continue while “inhuman violence which destroys the lives of the innocent” continued.



The conference said its members felt “profound pain” at Wednesday’s violence, which it blamed on armed groups with links to the government. “We energetically condemn all such acts of violence,” the bishops added.

The latest eruption of violence came just days after Amnesty International released a report accusing Nicaragua’s government of unleashing a deliberate campaign of deadly repression designed to snuff out the revolt. “The Nicaraguan authorities have turned on their own people in a vicious, sustained and frequently lethal assault,” claimed Amnesty’s Americas director, Erika Guevara-Rosas.

Guevara-Rosas claimed Ortega’s government had “shamelessly tried to cover up these atrocities” and shown “contempt for those who dare to stand up to them”. “The brave people of Nicaragua have shown that they will not be silenced,” she added.

Nicaragua’s richest man, Carlos Pellas, added his voice to a growing chorus of criticism of Ortega this week calling for early presidential elections as a way of finding “an orderly way out” of the crisis. 



Ortega, once a poster boy for the global left revered for helping overthrow the dictator Anastasio Somoza and his cold war battles with the US, has rejected calls for his exit while reportedly stepping up security around his mansion in Managua. 



“We want peace for all Nicaraguan families, security for all Nicaraguan families,” Ortega told a counter-rally on Wednesday according to the government-controlled newspaper El 19. 



El 19, which has blamed the violence on anti-government “vandals”, claimed the crowds responded by showering their Sandinista leader with kisses and hugs and cheers of “Daniel, amigo! El pueblo está contigo!” – Daniel, our friend! The people are with you!”</s>The death toll from weeks of violent unrest in Nicaragua rose to almost 100 as embattled President Daniel Ortega rejected calls to step down and the Catholic church, which has tried to mediate the conflict, Thursday refused to resume the dialogue.

At least 11 people were killed and 79 wounded on Wednesday as pro- and anti-government supporters clashed in a number of cities, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) said Thursday.

The deaths brought to 98 the number of people killed in a wave of protests that began on April 18 against Ortega and his ruling party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front. Over 900 have been wounded.

The protests were initially triggered by now-aborted reforms to the near-bankrupt social security system, but the unrest quickly broadened into a rejection by many Nicaraguans of Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, who are seen as autocratic.

The government and opposition had agreed on Monday to resume peace talks mediated by the Catholic church that stalled last week.

But the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference announced Thursday that it will not resume the dialogue as long as “the people continue to be repressed and killed” by “groups close to the government.”

The CENIDH said the latest killings occurred in the capital Managua and the cities of Esteli and Masaya, and incidents also took place in Leon.

“The aggressors were the repressive police and shock forces” who report to Ortega and his wife, according to the rights group.

The head of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, on Thursday condemned the killings by “repressive forces and the armed forces,” and called on Ortega’s government to stop the violence.

Ortega denounced a “conspiracy” by the opposition aimed at “terrorizing” the people, referring to Wednesday’s unrest.

“There are no shock forces or paramilitaries close to the government, so we cannot accept that we are accused of tragic and painful events that we have not provoked and we would never provoke,” he said in a statement.

Installations of the official radio station Radio Ya and a rural credit cooperative were burned and the facade of the national baseball stadium was destroyed.

Offices of the opposition channel 100% Noticias, censored for several days in mid-April by the authorities because of its coverage of demonstrations, and the transmission installations of the opposition radio station Dario in Leon were also attacked, their owners reported.

Deputy National Police director Francisco Diaz said Wednesday people wearing hoods fired guns and mortars at families taking part in a pro-government rally in Managua, leaving 12 injured including five police.

Two of the 12 — members of the youth branch of the ruling Sandinista party — later died, he added.

The opposition said another person died when pro-government activists opened fire in Managua on a rally in support of mothers who have lost children in the protests.

The unrest poses the biggest crisis ever faced by Ortega, a former guerrilla leader who first ruled between 1979 and 1990 before returning as president 11 years ago.

In a speech to thousands of supporters in Managua Wednesday night, he vowed to remain in power.

“Nicaragua belongs to all of us, and here we are all going to stay,” said Ortega, 72.

The speech came a day after the country’s richest and most influential businessman appealed for presidential elections to be moved forward from 2021 in a bid to calm the unrest.

The comments by Carlos Pellas, who controls the vast Grupo Pellas empire, came as a surprise as the powerful industrialist and other business leaders have traditionally supported Ortega.

“From my point of view, and it is something largely shared in the private sector, we must find an orderly way out of this, in a constitutional way, which implies reforms including a (presidential) election moved forward” from 2021, he said in an interview with newspaper La Prensa.

Ortega must “show the willingness to dialogue and accept fundamental changes,” said Pellas, 65, who has not previously spoken out publicly about the crisis.</s>A thuggish response to weeks of protests has eroded carefully constructed pillars of support in the church, military and business world for Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega, emboldening calls for the ousting of the former Marxist guerrilla who has dominated politics in the country for decades.

More than a month after changes to the Central American nation’s social security system triggered student-led protests, indignation at a brutal crackdown in which at least 77 people have been killed and over 800 wounded has morphed into a daily challenge to Ortega’s rule.

Protesters demand he step down, while regional diplomatic body the Organisation of American States said last week he should hold early elections. He has as yet shown no sign of heeding that call, which could end one of the longest standing leftist governments in Latin America, a staunch ally for socialist Venezuela.

It will not be easy for the loose alliance of students, farmers, politicians and academics to dislodge Ortega (72), who was re-elected in 2016 with nearly three-quarter of the votes after limiting opposition participation.

But the Sandinista leader, whose office acknowledged a request for comment on this story but provided no immediate response, looks more isolated and fragile than at any other time in his current 11-year tenure as president.

Support from the Catholic Church and the private sector is wavering. There is visible discomfort in the military, a solidly Sandinista organisation constructed by Ortega’s brother from the original rebel army that overthrew a US-backed dictator in the 1970s.

Even though the government backpedalled on the social security measures after five days, pent-up discontent exploded.

“This is a civic revolution, unprecedented in my country,” said Violeta Granera, a sociologist who ran as an opposition vice presidential candidate against Ortega in 2016.

The protests, she said, were nothing less than “a national demand for a total change in the economic, political and social system”.

The latest sign of fracturing came last week, when after just four days of talks, Nicaragua’s Episcopal Council of Catholic bishops suspended a “national dialogue” that had widely been seen as a chance for Ortega to take the wind out of the protests by making small concessions.

The church had fallen in behind its former adversary when he embraced Christianity before his 2007 return to office as a more moderate figure who avoided hostilities with Washington and business leaders.

Yet, in a pointed assessment, Silvio Jose Baez, an auxiliary archbishop of Managua, said the government had failed to embrace the dialogue’s agenda of “democratisation of the country”.

On Monday, a smaller group of government, private sector and church representatives restarted talks behind closed doors.

Students and government authorities agreed in the first days of talks to a truce that quickly fell apart when groups of youths attacked protesters entrenched at the Agrarian University of Nicaragua, badly wounding at least two people.

Dr Carlos Tunnermann Bernheim, an education minister during Ortega’s first term as president in the 1980s and now a vocal critic participating in the talks, called the violence “a grave violation” of terms agreed in the talks.

Every day, flag-bearing Nicaraguans pour through cities and towns. Thousands took to the streets again last Saturday.

At night, protesters hunker behind barricades of brick pulled up from the streets or walls of chairs and desks on university campuses, bracing with homemade mortars for clashes with pro-Ortega gangs whom witnesses and rights groups blame for many of the casualties.

Daily highway blockades have snarled transportation across the country, as students and farmers erect makeshift barricades to damage the economy and wear down the government. The government estimates the turmoil has cost the economy some $250 million (€214 million).

Despite the losses, many in the private sector are openly backing protesters and demanding change, turning against Ortega after an uneasy alliance in recent years that has undergirded strong economic growth.

In its most explicit move yet, the Superior Council of Private Enterprise in Nicaragua, which represents the private sector, called last Sunday on businesses to “join the clamour of mothers, grandmothers and wives who demand justice for the murder of their loved ones” in a march on Wednesday.

“Nobody expected this violence to be the way it was and we all find it disgusting,” said Mario Arana, a former central bank chief and analyst of the private sector.

Arana said that as it dawned on business leaders that police were shooting to maim or kill, with rubber bullets aimed directly at eyes, chests, and heads, or even with live ammunition, “then things began to change for everybody”.

Arana’s version of events chimes with the investigations of two local rights groups and a report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which has denounced grave violations of human rights characterised by the excessive force used by state security forces and armed third-parties during the protests.

Following the accusations that the initial police response was indiscriminate and disproportionate, agitators in civilian clothing are now behind much of the violence against protesters, observers say.

Ortega has publicly lamented the violence, saying that not only opponents, but also Sandinista supporters, bystanders and police have been killed.

Ortega has consolidated his rule by neutralising and co-opting credible opposition and stalling the development of independent institutions. His wife, Rosario Murrillo, is vice president and widely seen as a power behind the throne.

But the mass mobilisation has allowed politicians such as Granera to forge new alliances between civic and political groups, including her own Broad Front for Democracy, she and others said.

Building an effective anti-government coalition could prove difficult, however, said Eduardo Enriquez, editor of La Prensa newspaper, one of a handful of independent media outlets.

“The longer we don’t see results, people are going to start getting tired and disappointed,” he said. “And they have the force, the brute force. So we don’t want to lose the momentum.”

Another base of Ortega’s support is the army. But in recent days it has signalled its refusal to appear in the streets.

Privately to business leaders and then in a statement through a spokesman, senior commanders called for dialogue and said they would not repress the population.

Former officers in mid-May held a meeting in the town of Masaya, southeast of Managua, a former seat of the insurrection in the 1970s against then-strongman Anastasio Somoza and site of some of the most brutal clashes of recent weeks.

They spoke to a raucous gathering of protesters, beside a group painting a sidewalk tribute to the recently fallen, and a few feet from a makeshift hospital tent where volunteers treated wounded protesters who they, along with rights group and witnesses, said were denied access to government hospitals.

“All of us fought the overthrow of the dictatorship of Somoza. Then we participated in the defence of the revolution against the Contras, ” said Carlo Breles, a former Sandinista commander. “Now we initiating a third struggle, against the dictatorship of Ortega-Murillo.” – Reuters</s>The death toll from weeks of violent unrest in Nicaragua rose to 100 Thursday as embattled President Daniel Ortega rejected calls to step down and the Catholic Church, which has tried to mediate the conflict, refused to resume the dialogue.

At least 16 people were killed and 88 injured on Wednesday and into the early hours of Thursday as pro and anti-government supporters clashed in a number of cities, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) said Thursday in an updated toll. It said this was one of the most violent days yet in a wave of protests that began on April 18 against Ortega and his ruling party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front. Over 900 have been injured.

Diaz attributed the violence to "criminal groups," while a statement by Ortega linked those groups with the opposition.

Ortega denounced a "conspiracy" by the opposition aimed at "terrorizing" the people, referring to Wednesday's unrest.

"There are no shock forces or paramilitaries close to the government, so we cannot accept that we are accused of tragic and painful events that we have not provoked and we would never provoke," he said in a statement.

The Bishops' Conference denounced action by "armed groups close to the government against the civilian population" and said it was impossible to now resume dialogue in which the Catholic Church had mediated between civil society organizations and the authorities.

The army meanwhile denied that security forces had cooperated with paramilitary groups to crack down on demonstrators.

"We shall never accept slanderous information. The Nicaraguan army has absolute control over its forces," according to the statement.

Installations of the official radio station Radio Ya and a rural credit cooperative were burned and the facade of the national baseball stadium was destroyed.

The Central American country has been in turmoil since April 17, when protests erupted against new taxes on old age and disability pensions, as well as an increase in social security contributions.</s>Death toll in Nicaragua unrest nears 100 as Ortega vows to stay

MANAGUA: The death toll from weeks of violent unrest in Nicaragua rose to almost 100 as embattled President Daniel Ortega rejected calls to step down and the Catholic church, which has tried to mediate the conflict, Thursday refused to resume the dialogue.

At least 11 people were killed and 79 wounded on Wednesday as pro- and anti-government supporters clashed in a number of cities, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) said.

The deaths brought to 98 the number of people killed in a wave of protests that began on April 18 against Ortega and his ruling party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front. Over 900 have been wounded.

The protests were initially triggered by now-aborted reforms to the near-bankrupt social security system, but the unrest quickly broadened into a rejection by many Nicaraguans of Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, who are seen as autocratic.

The government and opposition had agreed on Monday to resume peace talks mediated by the Catholic church that stalled last week.But the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference announced Thursday that it will not resume the dialogue as long as “the people continue to be repressed and killed” by “groups close to the government”.

The CENIDH said the latest killings occurred in the capital Managua and the cities of Esteli and Masaya, and incidents also took place in Leon.“The aggressors were the repressive police” and anti-riot forces who report to Ortega and his wife, according to the rights group.

“Massacre! Shots are being fired against peaceful demonstrators,” Managua’s auxiliary bishop, Silvio Baez, wrote on social media late Wednesday.Installations of the official radio station Radio Ya and a rural credit cooperative were burned and the facade of the national baseball stadium was destroyed.

Offices of the opposition channel 100% Noticias, censored for several days in mid-April by the authorities because of its coverage of demonstrations, and the transmission installations of the opposition radio station Darío in Leon were also attacked, their owners reported.

Deputy National Police director Francisco Diaz said Wednesday people wearing hoods fired guns and mortars at families taking part in a pro-government rally in Managua, leaving 12 injured including five police.</s>Demonstrators stand behind a barricade during a protest against Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega's government in Managua Thomson Reuters By Oswaldo Rivas

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Eleven people were killed on Wednesday in one of the worst days of violence since protests against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega began more than a month ago, a rights group said on Thursday.

The bloodshed was condemned by the Central American country's Episcopal conference of Catholic bishops, who called it "organized and systematic aggression" and suspended talks with the government scheduled for Thursday.

Witnesses said pro-government armed groups opened fire on the marchers during a demonstration on Wednesday, Nicaragua's Mother's Day. The march was held to remember the children who were among the more than 80 killed since the start of protests more than a month ago.

The Nicaraguan Human Rights Center said six people were killed in the capital of Managua, with five others killed in other parts of the country and 79 injured. The army said it was treating some of the injured.

The European Parliament on Thursday condemned what it called "brutal repression" in Nicaragua and called for elections to be held earlier, echoing other calls for Ortega make the 2021 presidential election earlier.

In a letter to Ortega published on Twitter, business association COSEP urged the 72-year-old president to push up the vote to a date agreed between the government and civilian representatives.

"Given the magnitude of this crisis, we urge you to undertake every effort in your power to find a peaceful solution before we find ourselves immersed in an even more tragic situation," the letter said.

Ortega told supporters that Nicaragua "is not private property" in response to the COSEP demand, local newspaper La Prensa reported.

Proposed changes to Nicaragua's social security system last month triggered the student-led protests.</s>Fifteen people have been killed and 218 injured in violent incidents in troubled Nicaragua, police said Thursday.

Wednesday's violence hit the capital Managua, where paramilitary gunmen reportedly attacked an anti-government demonstration; the city of Chinandega in the north-west; Esteli in the north; and Masaya near the capital.

Diaz attributed the violence to "criminal groups," while a statement by President Daniel Ortega linked those groups with the opposition.

Ortega denied the existence of paramilitary groups allied with the government.

The Bishops' Conference denounced action by "armed groups close to the government against the civilian population" and said it was impossible to now resume dialogue in which the Catholic Church had mediated between civil society organizations and the authorities.

The army meanwhile denied that security forces had cooperated with paramilitary groups to crack down on demonstrators.

"We shall never accept slanderous information. The Nicaraguan army has absolute control over its forces," according to the statement.

The Central American country has been in turmoil since April 17, when protests erupted against new taxes on old age and disability pensions, as well as an increase in social security contributions.

The official death toll from the violence stands at 39; human rights group Amnesty International has said, however, that more than 80 people have been killed.</s>Nicaraguan Health Minister Sonia Castro confirmed Thursday that 15 people have died and 199 have been wounded over the past two days of anti-government protests around the country.

At public and private health centers nationwide "(medical) attention was provided to 199 people who were injured and we also have 15 fatalities," said the minister at a press conference together with other top public officials.

This is the second time since the eruption of the crisis on April 18 that the Daniel Ortega government has confirmed fatalities resulting from the protests, although humanitarian organizations say that the death toll so far stands at about 100.

The first time the government acknowledged protest deaths was when Vice President Rosario Murillo spoke of 10 fatalities in an April 20 appearance before reporters.

The assistant director of the National Police, Francisco Diaz, on Thursday at the press conference read from a report specifying that of the 15 deaths over the past two days, seven occurred in Managua, four in Esteli, three in Chinandega and one in Masaya.

On Thursday, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights released a preliminary report in which it lists at least 11 deaths and 79 people injured during the incidents on Wednesday and Thursday, and it energetically condemned the acts of violence and repression "ordered" by the government.

Foreign Minister Denis Moncada said that the government is "confronting with reason and the law this criminal wave" and denied the existence of "shock troops or paramilitary groups aligned with the government," adding that the Ortega administration had not and will "never" provoke such "sorrowful and tragic events."

He urged the "authorities to coordinate the effort for national dialogue, call for calm and cease all violence, with an eye toward continuing to work for security, justice and peace."

A Catholic Church-mediated national dialogue to find a way out of the crisis was begun on May 16 with the participation of an alliance of civil society sectors and the government but it was suspended last week.

The Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua warned on Thursday that the dialogue will not be resumed as long as the government continues with its repression.

Nicaragua is mired in a socio-political crisis that began with protests over government-sponsored social security reforms but continued even after the Ortega administration cancelled the reforms, exacerbated as a result of the demonstrators killed.
Catholic bishops cancel the planned Episcopal Conference talks with the government after protests against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega turn violent. According to the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center, pro-government armed groups killed 11 people.