More than 200 Nicaraguan university students have been reunited with their parents after a tense night of armed attacks that left two people dead and dozens injured.
The students had sought refuge in a local church after police forced them out of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, which had been occupied during two months of protests against the government of president Daniel Ortega.
“It was a really hard night. They discharged their entire heavy arsenal against stones and mortars,” said one young man who declined to give his name out of fear.
“They wanted to kill us all.”
Father Raul Zamora said the students came under fire at the Jesus of Divine Mercy church for more than 12 hours.
He said two journalists exited the church safely earlier on Saturday, along with some injured students who needed urgent hospital care.
The police onslaught was televised by local media and covered by three local journalists who reported via Facebook Live.
Students fearing for their lives sent farewell messages to friends and family.
“I did it for the country and I don’t regret it,” a crying girl said in a video that went viral.
“Forgive me mama, I love you.”
The police have not issued official statements.
Two students were killed, Roman Catholic cardinal Leopoldo Brenes said.
On Saturday morning, Cardinal Brenes negotiated with the president’s office for the safe transfer of students out of the church and to the Metropolitan cathedral, where representatives from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights were on hand.
“We have said not one more death, and this keeps happening,” Cardinal Brenes said. “These two deaths hurt.”
Tensions in Nicaragua erupted this spring after the government announced cuts to social security.
The changes were quickly reversed, but students took to the streets and occupied the main university with a wider call for Mr Ortega to step down.
The crisis in Nicaragua has left around 270 dead and more than 2,000 injured as forces loyal to the government crack down on opponents.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here