Nicaragua 'coup has failed', Ortega ally says
Nicaragua's government has defeated a "coup", a senior minister told AFP in an interview Wednesday after months of deadly protests in the Central American country against President Daniel Ortega. Paul Oquist, the minister for national policies and one of the cabinet members closest to Ortega, added that the dozens of deaths since the violence broke out in April would be studied "case by case". "Nicaragua's good news is that the coup has failed, that is, the attempt to carry out a coup d'etat in Nicaragua is already defeated," Oquist said after talks in Brussels between the EU and Latin American countries. "And that is very good news because what it leaves then is dialogue, because the coup plotters did not want dialogue." Around 280 Nicaraguans have been killed in clashes since protests -- led mostly by students and young people -- against Ortega and his government erupted on April 18, initially in opposition to a pension reform before mushrooming into wider civic discontent. At least 12 people were killed over the weekend, the UN said, after pro-government forces launched an operation in the south to clear opposition barricades mounted in various towns to prevent police and armed forces from entering. "All deaths will be studied on a case-by-case basis," Oquist said. "Protesters or students are going to be found dead. Police are going to be found dead. Sandinistas are going to be found dead, tortured, a lot of people caught in the crossfire are gonna to be found dead," he added. The United States on Wednesday warned Ortega against an assault on the rebel city of Masaya, while the United Nations voiced deep concern about "enforced disappearances". The EU on Tuesday offered to "accompany and support" efforts to reach a peaceful solution in Nicaragua, while saying that it "deplores" the violence. Oquist said the government was "inviting all these international organisations to facilitate the dialogue that has the Catholic Church as moderators" to try to stop the violence.
