Opposition March in Nicaragua violently attacked by Sandinistas

Quoted from the Nicaragua Network's NicaNet hotline:

On Sept. 20, people identifying themselves as Sandinistas prevented an opposition march and rally from taking place in the city of Leon. Attacks on opposition demonstrators wounded five people; many more were bruised and battered. Sandinista activists blocked highways to prevent busses from entering Leon for the planned march. National Assembly Deputy Luis Callejas of the “Let’s Go with Eduardo” Movement (MVE) told La Prensa that members of the Sandinista group broke the windshield of his car, stopped busses, and attacked with machetes three people who were taken to the Chinandega hospital. On the Pan American Highway between Nagarote and La Paz Centro, police intervened to remove Sandinistas who had blocked the highway with burning tires, boulders and tree trunks.

FSLN historic combatant, Benito Quiroz, who fought in the Sandinista war to overthrow the Somoza dictatorship, told La Primerisima Radio that the Sandinistas would not permit groups which would sell out the country to march in the city. “We are acting within our rights; it is our duty; they are not going to take the revolution away so easily,” Quiroz said, adding “Leon is FSLN territory.” Leon FSLN Political Secretary Evert Delgadillo told La Prensa that days previously it had been decided to “carry forward the battle to defend the red and black [the traditional Sandinista colors] people’s bastion [of Leon].”

On the campus of the Autonomous Catholic University, Sandinistas burned a car belonging to the president of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), Enrique Saenz, and threw bags of black oil at MRS and MVE politicians. Police officers protected the political leaders until they left the city a few hours later. Horacio Roca, sub-director of the National Police, said that they were going to “evaluate the situation” in Leon. Edmundo Jarquin, former MRS presidential candidate, said that the police had a dilemma “because they tried to protect the rights of the opposition group but were reluctant to suppress the aggressors because of their Sandinista links dating to their founding.”

The opposition march was organized by the Democratic Coalition of the West including the Movement for Nicaragua, which was created and funded by the US International Republican Institute of the National Endowment for Democracy, as well as the United Citizenry for Democracy, the Civil Coordinator, the United Movement for Leon, the Pro-Vote Movement and other opposition groups whose sources of funding are unknown.

Saenz said that he placed the blame for the burning of his car directly on the FSLN candidate for mayor of Leon, Manuel Calderon. He said, “Calderon, accompanied by a red and black mob, began to throw stones and later entered private property to burn my car and destroy the truck of Felix Noel Garcia.”

I used to follow Nicaraguan politics as best I could online, but I haven't been paying close attention the last couple years. I find this attack somewhat surprising in the sense that political violence in Nicaragua has not been all that common in recent years. But, it seems the polarizing effect of the election of Daniel Ortega to the presidency in 2006 is leading to some increasingly ugly conflicts. 

Nicaragua is holding municipal elections in November, which are sure to be another polarizing affair. The municipal elections in 2004 were incredibly important for the Sandinistas in demonstrating the party's political comeback after several disappointing elections throughout the 1990s and Ortega's consistently poor election results in the three presidential elections prior to 2006. The Sandinistas are looking to increase the number of municipalities they govern in these upcoming elections, although they already control a majority of municipalities, including nearly all the major population centers of Nicaragua. If the party does do well in these upcoming elections, we may see more political unrest.

If you are interested in reading a decent summary of what has been going politically in Nicaragua since 2006, click here. (Please read this with a grain of salt, the biases are pretty apparent, but there aren't many options when trying to find information on any Central American country).