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Death toll rises in fifth day of Nicaragua protests against government

Students cry next to the casket of student Alvaro Conrado, 15, during a mass at the Santo Domingo church in Managua, Nicaragua April 21, 2018. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas
Students cry next to the casket of student Alvaro Conrado, 15, during a mass at the Santo Domingo church in Managua, Nicaragua April 21, 2018. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas

Thomson Reuters

By Oswaldo Rivas

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Anti-government protests in Nicaragua entered a fifth day on Sunday as the death toll from the violence rose and looting was reported in some areas, aggravating the crisis around longstanding President Daniel Ortega.

The Red Cross said at least seven people had died and hundreds had been injured in the demonstrations, while a local human rights organization said it had registered 25 deaths.

The protests began on Wednesday over plans to increase worker contributions and lower pensions, and some stores in Managua were looted at the weekend, Reuters witnesses said. At least two protest marches were planned in Managua on Sunday.

Late on Saturday, local media said a reporter was shot and killed during a live broadcast from Bluefields, a town on the Caribbean coast hit by the unrest. Graphic footage of the incident soon spread onto local and social media.

Lissett Guido, a Red Cross spokeswoman, said there were seven confirmed deaths and that the number would likely rise. The government had reported "almost 10" by late on Friday.

Marlin Sierra, director of human rights organization CENIDH, said it had logged 25 deaths, mostly caused by firearms and rubber bullets. That number could not be independently verified. Most of the dead were aged between 15 and 34, she said.

The police crackdown on demonstrators and curbs on some media in the past few days have fueled broader criticism of Ortega, who has gradually tightened his hold on the country's institutions since he returned to power over 11 years ago.

Pope Francis called on Sunday for an end to the violence in Nicaragua and called for differences to be "resolved peacefully and with a sense of responsibility."

Nicaragua has been one of the more stable countries in Central America, largely avoiding the turmoil caused by gang violence or political upheaval that has at times plagued Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala in recent years.

But top Nicaraguan business lobby COSEP has backed peaceful protests against the government, and said it would not enter talks with Ortega to review the social security plan until he had ended police repression and restored freedom of expression.

A former Marxist guerrilla and Cold War antagonist of the United States, Ortega has presided over a period of stable growth with a blend of socialist policies and capitalism.

But critics accuse Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, of trying to establish a family dictatorship. The country remains one of the poorest in the Americas.

Ortega was a driving force in the overthrow of one of Latin America's most notorious regimes when his Sandinistas ended the Somoza dynasty's long rule of the country in 1979.

He was elected president in 1984, but a civil war, which pitted the Sandinistas against U.S.-backed right wing Contra rebels, hurt his popularity, and he was voted out in 1990.

Not until a 2006 election did Ortega reclaim the presidency.

Now 72, he has maintained an uneasy relationship with the United States, toning down his Cold War rhetoric but forging close ties with U.S. adversaries such as the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro.

(Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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