Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 20 September 2019
Nicaragua opposition leader sees long road

By GABRIELA SELSER Thousands of Nicaraguans
Associated Press fled the country's politi-
MANAGUA, Nicaragua cal crisis, during which 328
(AP) — Opposition leader protesters were killed, over
Félix Maradiaga said Thurs- 2,000 wounded and hun-
day after returning to Ni- dreds jailed, according to
caragua from 14 months in the Inter-American Com-
exile that he will not leave mission on Human Rights.
again, even though he Ortega officials have re-
believes President Dan- peatedly called opposition
iel Ortega has imposed a protesters "terrorists" and
"peace of the graveyard." consider the demonstra-
In an interview with The As- tions tantamount to an at-
sociated Press, the 43-year- tempted coup.
old political scientist and On Wednesday, Mara-
academic said he intends diaga said, he was fol-
to focus on organization lowed on the streets of the
and unity of the opposi- capital, Managua, by five
tion movement, which has armed people on motor-
been unsuccessful in its at- cycles whom he identified
tempts to get Ortega to as "Ortega fanatics."
leave office after protests Nicaraguan opposition activist Felix Maradiaga, center, stands at attention as the national an- "What they did to me today
and a deadly crackdown them is sung during a press conference in Managua, Nicaragua, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. is just a sample of the terror
last year. Associated Press that thousands of farmers
"I came to stay," Maradia- are living in rural areas," he
ga said, "and work from the the government accused gua, where police waited ment. said.
grassroots." him of "financing terror- at the airport but he was "I do not want the regime Maradiaga first went into
Maradiaga was director ism" in the demonstrations not detained. to manipulate my arrival exile at age 12 in the 1980s,
of the Institute for Strate- which erupted in April 2018. He came back "to contin- to make people think that a time when his family splin-
gic Studies and Public Poli- A judge ordered his arrest ue the civic struggle from there is peace in Nicara- tered between those who
cies, a non-governmental and he fled with his fam- within," said Maradiaga, gua, because what there favored Ortega's Sandini-
research and leadership ily to the United States. On a leader of the Blue and is, is a peace of the grave- sta party and those who
training organization, when Monday he flew to Nicara- White National Unity move- yard," Maradiaga said. opposed it.q

5 accused of obstructing murder case of Brazilian politician

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — to death in central Rio de
Brazil's departing attorney Janeiro on March 14, 2018,
general requested on Tues- returning from an event
day that five people be focused on empowering
charged with obstruction young black women.
of justice during the inves- In March, authorities arrest-
tigation into the 2018 killing ed Ronnie Lessa, a retired
of a leftist city councilwom- military police officer, and
an in Rio de Janeiro. Elcio Vieira de Queiroz, on
Acting a day before hand- suspicion of having carried
ing over the reins to her out the attack. Lawyers for
successor, Attorney Gener- both men denied their in-
al Raquel Dodge accused volvement.
two court officials, two po- Franco was a prominent
lice agents and a lawyer activist for Afro-Brazilian
of interfering with the in- and LGBT rights and an out-
quiry into Marielle Franco's spoken critic of Rio's violent
death. police forces and paramili-
One of the former court of- tary groups, but a year and
ficials, Domingos Brazão, a half after the assassina-
was named as the slay- tion, the motive remains
ing's possible mastermind unclear.
in a police report that was In this March 14, 2019 file photo, a woman wears a T-shirt designed with an image of slain council- For a long time, the name
leaked to Brazilian media woman Marielle Franco during a memorial Mass to mark the one-year anniversary of her death, most frequently speculated
last March. He has denied at the Candelaria Catholic Church in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. on as a possible master-
that. Associated Press mind had been Rio coun-
In a case sent to the Bra- cilman Marcello Siciliano,
zilian Superior Court of The attorney general's of- by a federal police officer, The Associated Press who has been accused of
Justice, Dodge also rec- fice alleged in a statement a state police officer and a was not able to contact ties to paramilitary groups
ommended that federal that Brazão, a former ad- lawyer in spreading false in- Brazão's lawyer but he has that control large swaths
agents take over the case viser at Rio's audit court, formation so Brazão would denied the allegation in lo- of western Rio de Janeiro.
to avoid further interfer- and one of his aides tried not be identified as the cal media. Siciliano has testified sev-
ence and identify those to mislead state police of- mastermind of the killing, Franco and her driver, An- eral times but has not been
who ordered the killings. ficers. The two were helped the statement alleged. derson Gomes, were shot charged in the crime.q