Nicaragua in Crisis June 27th 2018

The attacks are gaining in strength. Everything in Leon is closed including the BanPro which is a government bank. They remain closed until further notice. This is the bank that most pensioners and workers receive their pay. The 30th is a payday here and there will be no money for the pensioners or the government workers.

There is no respect being shown for the churches. On Sunday the masses in the Cathedral in Managua were cancelled because the para-military groups had taken over the building and were threatening the parishioners. In Leon, groups of the president's supporters were going from church to church, defecating in paper cups and spreading it on the priest's robes.

Many of the other religious groups are complaining of being harassed. Prayer groups are being cancelled. Funerals are being kept small for fear of attacks. Last week a 15-year-old altar server was killed entering the church before services. Only the Old Cathedral in Leon has escaped the vandalism.

Medical care for the injured often lacks compassion. Ambulances are called meat wagons for a reason. Often times the ambulances won’t leave the centre of Leon. Medications are in short supply as are blood and IV fluids. Patients are asked to pay in advance for their bandages with no guarantee that there will be fresh ones available when they need them.

The hospitals no longer supply food for their inpatients. Often the dead lie in the street where they have fallen until family can retrieve them. People who die in hospital are left on the loading dock in the sun, next to the garbage.

Small planes are spraying chemicals over the smaller communities. At first, it was pesticides. Now I am not sure what it is as it doesn’t smell like any that I am familiar with. Fish in the fish farms are dying.

Managua is a war zone. There is no doubt about what is happening there. Masaya has more dead and injured as well. The reports just keeping coming mostly through 100%Noticias and their informers. The government radio and TV stations only report how pale and stressed the presidential couple are. 10 days ago, government supporters rounded up 20 foreign journalists, confiscated their equipment and escorted them to an undisclosed location. They have not been heard from since.

The government began forcibly removing the blockades resulting in more deaths and wounded left lying in the streets. Now the people are digging trenches across the streets to prevent Hilux pickups filled with armed men randomly shooting at homes and vehicles.

Babies are being born at the blockades because the mothers are not permitted to pass to go to the hospitals. Nothing passes the blockades. Now there are roving gangs armed with baseball bats and rocks stopping vehicles on the road and demanding money for safe passage.

On June 26th, the EU and UN delegations arrived in Managua. Since their arrival the violence has increased and shows no signs of letting up. There are no words to describe the carnage that is seen in the streets daily. The death count is fast approaching 300 in 70 days of political unrest, a civil war by any other name.