Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 1 august 2018
UN calls on neighbors to receive those fleeing Nicaragua

By GERARDO CARRILLO Costa Rica this month.
CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN "There's an arrest warrant
PENAS BLANCAS, Nicara- for me because they're
gua (AP) — Thousands of accusing me of terrorism,"
people are fleeing political Cuadras said by phone.
violence and rights viola- He was working to organize
tions in Nicaragua follow- support to pressure Ortega.
ing a violent crackdown on He had already met with
anti-government protests. former Costa Rican Presi-
The Office of the U.N. High dent Oscar Arias and mem-
Commissioner for Human bers of the country's legisla-
Rights called on other na- ture.
tions Tuesday to help Cos- "Those who manage to
ta Rica, which has been flee cross to Costa Rica or
flooded with thousands of Honduras," Cuadras said.
requests for asylum. "There are many who have
Giulia Mortrones said she already been taken pris-
had headed by bus to the oner."
Costa Rican border be- Journalists saw three young
cause university students Nicaraguan men ordered
like her had become a tar- off a bus headed into
get for Nicaraguan police. Costa Rica Tuesday at the
"We were afraid that some- Masked women take part in demonstration supporting journalists recently attacked while covering Pena Blancas crossing, ap-
protests demanding the resignation of President Daniel Ortega in Managua, Nicaragua, Monday,
thing would happen to us," July 30, 2018. parently for lack of appro-
Mortrones said while wait- Associated Press priate documents.
ing at Penas Blancas, on The U.N. office said Costa
the border with Costa Rica. attacked students who borhoods said government One woman, who declined Rica is receiving about 200
"We are fleeing from there had been holed up at the informants had been com- to give her name because asylum applications per
(Nicaragua), from the na- National Autonomous Uni- piling lists of who was man- she hoped her son would day.
tional police, because they versity of Nicaragua, one ning them or supporting soon be released, said he Costa Rica says nearly
are following all students." of the opposition's last bas- them. People on those lists had been arrested the 8,000 Nicaraguans have
The flight of Nicaraguans tions in Managua. Then a are now being systemically week before while trying filed asylum claims since
has intensified in the past couple of days later, police hunted and arrested, ac- to flee into Costa Rica. The anti-government protests
month since Ortega's po- and armed, masked civil- cording to Nicaraguan hu- police had sent him back began in April and the U.N.
lice and paramilitary forces ians routed the opposition man rights groups. to Masaya and he was be- agency said "some 15,000
worked to clear the last of stronghold of Monimbo in In Masaya last week, sev- ing investigated for his al- more have been given ap-
the barricades that had Masaya, about an hour eral dozen people, mostly leged participation in the pointments for later regis-
been knotting the country's south of the capital. women, waited outside barricades. tration as the national pro-
traffic since April. People who observed the the town's police station for Student leader Victor Cua- cessing capacities have
In July, paramilitary forces barricades in their neigh- word of their loved ones. dras, however, made it to been overwhelmed."q

Opposition leader: Venezuela anti-government efforts advance

Associated Press same political message," battled President Nicolas
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) Capriles said. Maduro back to the nego-
— Venezuela's fractured Incumbent Nicolas Maduro tiating table.
opposition coalition is ad- in 2013 defeated Capriles Several rounds of mediated
vancing in its efforts to unite for the presidency, and last talks between the govern-
around a new plan of ac- year officials disqualified ment and opposition last
tion as the country's eco- him from participating in year failed to reach any
nomic crisis deepens, a key any election for 15 years on agreement, but Capriles
anti-government leader grounds of alleged admin- now thinks they would be
says. istrative irregularities dur- more fruitful, given the
Henrique Capriles told The ing his tenure as governor. government's weakening
Associated Press in an in- Capriles denies the allega- position. The International
terview Monday that meet- tions. He acknowledged Monetary Fund recently
ings in recent weeks with that Venezuela's opposi- projected that Venezuela's
other anti-government tion has struggled to rekin- inflation this year could top
leaders have been pro- Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles speaks during dle momentum after near- 1 million percent, compar-
an interview at his office in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July
ductive. 30, 2018. daily protests that drew ing the country's economic
He declined to reveal de- Associated Press thousands to the streets turmoil to Germany's af-
tails of the closed-door talks died out after four months ter World War I and Zim-
but said an announcement gun holding small protests pant inflation and the gov- last year. He said now is the babwe's at the beginning
would come soon. around the nation to proj- ernment's failure to reliably time to unite. of the last decade. It said
The former presidential ect a single political mes- provide basic services such "Either we do it fast and we Venezuela's economic fall
candidate and ex-gover- sage. as water and electricity. do it now — or we disap- was among the world's
nor said that the opposi- Residents have been tak- "It's a challenge for the pear," Capriles said. deepest in six decades.
tion's challenge now is to ing to the streets, upset nurses, teachers and ev- Capriles said that Venezu- "Each day, the govern-
unite frustrated Venezue- that their paychecks are erybody to follow the same ela's crippling economic ment's room to maneuver is
lans who have recently be- being pulverized by ram- path, to articulate the crisis could soon force em- reduced," Capriles said.q