Ortega's not out of the woods yet.

Boz and Francisco Toro have an op-ed in the Washington Post on The unlikely origins of Nicaragua’s epic wave of protest.

Given the intensity of the protests, what triggered them sounds surprisingly small: a modest pension reform that raised taxes between 1 and 4 percentage points and cut benefits by 5 percent.

Needless to say, that’s not the whole story. Ortega has spent more than a decade dismantling Nicaragua’s democracy. His Sandinista Party has stolen elections for the Nicaraguan congress and stacked the judiciary with cronies, and controls nearly every mayoral seat. The president reformed the constitution to grant massive concessions to a Chinese developer for a canal that will never be built plus projects that benefit Ortega’s party, allies and family. He has tried to silence dissent by buying off many of the major media outlets. The Sandinista-controlled courts allowed Ortega to run for a third term in 2016, which he won under blatantly unfair conditions.

Pension reform is something tangible everyone was able to understand - contribute a greater share of one's income and receive fewer benefits. However, the reforms took place against in an environment of decreasing legitimacy because of the Ortega family's dismantling of democracy. I mentioned the underlying causes last week as well. Nonviolent protests against the regime's actions have been taking place this weekend. Ortega's not out of the woods yet.