NICARAGUA
Violence erupts in Nicaraguan indigenous zone
Violence spread in an autonomous region of Nicaragua as Sandinista efforts to halt elections continued.
Posted on Sat, Apr. 05, 2008
By TIM ROGERS
Special to The Miami Herald
MANAGUA --
Sandinista efforts to cancel the upcoming municipal elections in parts of Nicaragua's hurricane ravaged North Atlantic Autonomous Region sparked violence and rioting Friday in the indigenous community of Bilwi, where opposition leaders claim the government of President Daniel Ortega is trying to establish a dictatorship by eliminating their right to elect local officials.
''The situation is chaotic and dangerous, and I think it is going to get even hotter,'' anti-Sandinista indigenous leader Osorno ''Comandante Blas'' Coleman, said in a phone interview from Bilwi. ``The authorities have to act prudent right now.''
One person was shot dead and another was in critical condition Friday. Several others were injured by rocks shot from slingshots as the regional Sandinista-ally group, YATAMA, clashed with a much larger opposition group that met with a delegation of liberal lawmakers who traveled to the coast to investigate the situation.
The three visiting lawmakers were initially held hostage on their plane, which was surrounded by some 80 YATAMA supporters. A larger group of several thousand anti-Sandinista indigenous people then came to the lawmakers' rescue, clashing with the YATAMA group.
FLIGHTS CANCELED
The rioting then spread as anti-Sandinista protesters took over the YATAMA-controlled mayor's office, looting the building and breaking windows, while another group burned two government vehicles in the street. All national flights to and from the regional airport were canceled for the second time in a week.
Coleman claims that the gunshots came from the YATAMA group headed by Brooklyn Rivera, a former anti-Sandinista militant who formed a controversial electoral alliance with Ortega in exchange for a seat in the National Assembly. Rivera, meanwhile, claims the violence and rioting were incited by the three visiting Liberal Party lawmakers, including former contra militant Enrique Quiñónez, against whom the Sandinistas filed a criminal accusation Friday afternoon.
''The population on the coast doesn't have guns; it was the Liberals who went there and got the people drunk and drugged and gave them weapons, which they fired indiscriminately, killing one of their own,'' Rivera told The Miami Herald.
The National Police sent a high-level delegation from Managua out to the Caribbean coast by helicopter to investigate.
AT ISSUE
At the center of the controversy is the Sandinistas' efforts to cancel the upcoming November elections in three municipalities under the argument that the conditions for voting don't exist due to damage caused by last September's Hurricane Felix, a Category 5 storm that destroyed much of the region, known by the Spanish acronym RAAN, including school houses used for voting.
Last week, Ortega called for a suspension of the elections in the municipalities of Bilwi, Waspam and Prinzapolka -- the same three municipalities controlled by the Sandinistas and their YATAMA ally.
The opposition claims the Sandinistas' real motive is to hold onto power by avoiding elections they fear they will lose. Critics claim efforts to suspend the vote is another example of the Sandinista government politicizing the hurricane disaster.
Bernicia Sanders, a leader of an indigenous women's group from Bilwi, traveled to Managua last week to ask opposition political parties for support in defending the region's right to hold elections. ''We know our rights,'' she said. ``And we need to elect our own leaders.''
Coleman, a former anti-Sandinista militant leader from the 1980s, says that canceling the elections would be nothing short of canceling democracy. ''If they suspend the elections, we will have a dictatorship,'' he said.
g the hurricane disaster.
Bernicia Sanders, a leader of an indigenous women's group from Bilwi, traveled to Managua last week to ask opposition political parties for support in defending the region's right to hold elections. ''We know our rights,'' she said. ``And we need to elect our own leaders.''
Coleman, a former anti-Sandinista militant leader from the 1980s, says that canceling the elections would be nothing short of canceling democracy. ''If they suspend the elections, we will have a dictatorship,'' he said.
