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American among the dead in Nicaragua unrest
MANAGUA, June 3, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – An American was among those killed in recent anti-government unrest in Managua, the US ambassador said Saturday.
“The US Government expresses its condolences to the family of the US citizen killed last night and to all the families who have recently visited the Forensic Medicine Institute. The death of a US citizen is of great concern to our Embassy,” Ambassador Laura Dogu said on Twitter.
She was referring to Sixto Henry Viera, 48. Viera was said to have been shot by a pro-government mob in Managua, the rights group ANPD reported.
Weeks of anti-government demonstrations have left more than 100 dead, in an increasingly sensitive challenge for the government of President Daniel Ortega.
Ortega, 72, has dominated Nicaraguan politics since leading the Sandinista revolution that ousted dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979.
He took over the country as head of a ruling junta and then president until 1990, then returned to power in 2007 — and looks determined to stay there, despite the protests and the devastating loss of his once-solid support from the business elite.
The protests began over a much-hated pension reform and ballooned into a mass threat to Ortega’s rule.
The embattled president denies repressing them.
BSS/AFP/AU/07:28 hrs