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NICARAGUA’S PARLIAMENT HAS approved a law granting amnesty to protesters and police involved in last year’s deadly uprising against President Daniel Ortega.
The law, passed by MPs loyal to Ortega who control the legislature, applies to “all those who took part in the events beginning on 18 April, 2018,” when protests broke out, sparking a heavy-handed response by security forces.
The Central American country descended into crisis and a brutal crackdown by Ortega’s troops over the next four months left 325 dead, 800 in prison and thousands in exile.
The government promised in talks with the opposition to release all detained protesters by 18 June, and the measure passed yesterday calls for jailed dissidents to be released “immediately,” but also stipulates that they must “refrain” from protesting again.
The bill also closes the door on investigating and punishing security forces involved in repressing the protests.
Sparked by a now-scrapped pension reform proposal, the protests left 325 people dead, most of them opposition supporters.
“The path to peace and reconciliation can only be through forgiveness, and it hurts us to have to grant amnesty to confessed assassins of police,” but “the country comes first,” said Edwin Castro, head of Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in parliament, whose 70 MPs voted for the law.
The National Unity Blue and White (UNAB), a coalition of more than 70 opposition groups, denounced the amnesty law, saying it “aims to cover up crimes that (the government) committed with its institutions, partisan structures and paramilitaries.”
The opposition accuses 73-year-old former left-wing guerrilla leader Ortega, who first came to power in 1979 following the fall of the US-backed Somoza family dictatorship, of rights abuses and authoritarian leadership.
Peace talks between Ortega and opposition groups have stalled several times, notably due to Ortega’s refusal to countenance a key demand that he resign and bring forward elections slated for 2021.
- © AFP 2019.
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Brave woman. Cowardly man.
5 years breaking stones would teach him that this is not a nice thing to do. I would give him a heavier hammer in all fairness. We are all to soft on this kind of low life…
@techman: I’d give him a hammer to his kneecaps. Far more likely to prevent recidivism than all the psychobabble he might get in jail.
It’s always best just to hand it over .. not worth risking your life for ..
Its an awful shame citizens here can’t carry tasers nor even pepper spray as they can in other countries where citizenry are not emasculated since 1972 by Irish governments terrified of what allowing them to arm themselves might lead to. A government afraid of its People rather than the other way around. Imagine bow that might help it to clean up its act not to mention allowing us to defend ourselves against non-political criminals too, including perhaps some of our own “guardians of the peace” if what Sgt McCabe says is true, and I for one believe him.
have your say