Page 12 - aruba-today-20180811

A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 11 auguSt 2018
Arbitrary arrests, abuse the new norm in Nicaragua

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN to rape us. They said they
MANAGUA, Nicaragua were going to rape the
(AP) — The 21-year-old ag- girls," he said.
ricultural economics stu- Police and masked civilians
dent, nearly two months asked the same questions
pregnant, had hoped to in the interrogations: Who
escape Nicaragua with were the student leaders?
her boyfriend, but a police What political party was fi-
officer on a motorcycle nancing their movement?
blocked their path as they How much were they be-
were getting into taxis with ing paid? What weapons
other students to go to a did they have?
safe house. A 24-year-old marketing
Five police trucks loaded major at the national uni-
with masked and armed versity said a female police
men dressed in civilian officer threatened her with
garb surrounded them. Uni- a knife and slapped her.
formed officers began to A 23-year-old woman who
search the students' back- recently graduated from
packs. One pulled out a another university said she
blue-and-white Nicara- was hit with a rifle butt.
guan flag. Her boyfriend, whom they
"These are the terrorists who suspected of being a lead-
killed our fellow police," the er, suffered worse. "They
officer shouted, using Presi- In this July 18, 2018 file photo, heavily armed pro-government militia occupy the Monimbo neigh- put a cigarette on his tes-
dent Daniel Ortega's term borhood of Masaya, Nicaragua. ticle," she said.
for those who have protest- Associated Press The pregnant student was
ed against his government taken to a room and made
since mid-April. of those arrested and re- Ortega for weeks denied gunfire that killed two peo- to stand with her hands
The young couple and their leased, all of whom are that paramilitary squads ple. spread out on a table. The
friends joined the ranks of in hiding. They agreed to and Sandinista youth A short time later, she and interrogators began hitting
more than 2,000 people speak only on condition of groups that have clashed others were taken to a po- her in the stomach once
arrested in Nicaragua in anonymity out of fear of re- with or attacked protest- lice processing center and more, she said, and a fe-
nearly four months of unrest taliation. ers were working with the lined up with their hands male officer cut off half her
and official crackdown. At "Right now, without exag- police. But when asked in behind their necks. toenail.
least 400 people are be- gerating, Nicaragua is a a recent TV interview how "I told (one) I was preg- When she again told them
lieved to still be held in jails, prison," said Vilma Nunez, demonstrators picked up nant," she said. "'Ah,' he she was pregnant, they
prisons and police stations, the rights center's president by masked paramilitaries says, 'great. We've got a told her: "The pain is what
and some consider them and a former supreme ended up in jails, he said: pregnant one.'" we feel fighting for the
political prisoners, the non- court vice president un- "We have volunteer police "One of the paramilitaries country. You all just want to
governmental Nicaraguan der Ortega's first Sandinista who cooperate with the came and punched me see the country destroyed.
Human Rights Center says. government in 1979. She police." in the stomach," she said. You want to see our com-
The others were held for called Ortega's systematic He has accused protesters "'Now we're going to get it mander (Ortega) go."
days or weeks incommuni- search for those involved and opponents of trying to out of you,' he said. 'And Midway through her five-
cado, brutally interrogat- in the protests a "human stage a coup. you're going to eat it alive.'" day incarceration she
ed to give up names and hunt." The unrest began as pro- The men and women were started to bleed. She was
threatened with terrorism Last week the Inter-Amer- tests to social security cuts. separated and interrogat- interrogated and beaten
charges before being re- ican Commission on Hu- After a deadly crackdown, ed individually. The men again.
leased without explanation man Rights said its moni- students became the van- were stripped naked. When the students were
as Ortega's government toring team in Nicaragua guard of a broader push A 20-year-old business ad- finally released they were
seeks to extinguish the resis- found that detainees were demanding Ortega step ministration student from warned to stay out of sight
tance. abused, not informed of down. the national university said or they would be charged
"They crushed my fingers, their rights or any charges, The young woman from he was punched in the with terrorism.
and hit me in the ribs and and taken into custody the National Autonomous stomach and kicked in The next day she went to
the stomach," the preg- without warrants. Their fam- University of Nicaragua the testicles. A police offi- a hospital, where a doctor
nant student said. "When ilies were not told where was among nearly 200 stu- cer ripped out his eyebrow told her there was nothing
I was on the ground, they they were held, it added. dents who dug in at the piercing, and a cigarette they could do.
kicked me." National police did not Managua campus, only to was put out on a tattoo on "They told me to prepare
The Associated Press sep- respond to a request for be driven out in mid-July by his shoulder. myself for the news," she
arately interviewed four comment. paramilitaries under heavy "They said they were going said. "I lost my baby."q

Our Lady of Copacabana festival spreads to Peru

CUZCO, Peru (AP) — celebration of festival, is held in the old Incan problem. The presence of Bolivian
Veneration of Bolivia's Our including members of the capital of Cuzco. She said the Roman merchants in southern
Lady of Copacabana has LGTBQ community. The Peruvian festival's Catholic rites of Our Lady of Peru spread and spurred
extended into neighboring The areas share a common founder, Libia Espinoza, Copacabana began in the devotion to Our Lady
southern Peru, where history and Andean culture, said she has "a lot of faith" 16th century in the Bolivian of Copacabana in this
hundreds of faithful are and Peru's main festival of in the virgin because she town of Copacabana on country, which shares Lake
drawn to the annual Our Lady of Copacabana cured her of a kidney the shores of Lake Titicaca. Titicaca with Bolivia.q