Protests rattle Nicaragua

Ten Nicaraguans have been killed and over 100 injured since Wednesday in "clashes between police and opponents of changes to the pension system." Nicaraguans protesting the government's decision to increase worker contributions to their pensions while simultaneously decreasing the benefits of those pensions.  According to the New York Times, students from the public universities and retirees have made up the majority of the protesters.

Electoral shenanigans, moderate economic growth, low levels of crime and insecurity, Ortega's cult of personality, a fractured opposition, and the selective use of repression have provided relatively stability to Nicaragua even as the country's democratic political system disintegrated.

Longtime Nicaragua-watcher Tim Rogers has a sense that today's protests are somehow different from those of earlier years, particularly those of 2009.

But this week's street protests have revealed a chink in Ortega's armor. Suddenly, his control over the country—and even Sandinismo—is being challenged like never before. Students from universities that have been bastions of Sandinista strength are now leading the pushback against Ortega's government. Sandinista revolutionaries in the heroic town of Monimbó, the cradle of insurrection in the 1970s, clashed wildly with pro-government forces in a block-by-block street fight on Thursday afternoon.

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The situation now threatens to get entirely out of hand. Events are happening fast—almost too fast for the country to fully comprehend. Sometimes history lurches forward after years of stasis. Nicaraguans have lived through it before. Some think it's happening again.

While the Ortega government says that it is open to dialogue, its rhetoric has rejected the legitimacy of the protesters' concerns. Vice-President Rosario Murillo has said that the protesters are being manipulated and she has blamed the violence on "vampires" and "tiny groups that inflame and destabilize to destroy Nicaragua." While it is early, the regime's survival is at stake. Murillo's statement seems to make that crystal clear.