Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega denies that he has quashed the protests through repression, doesn’t feel responsible for those who died in the streets in the last four-plus months, and blames the United States and drug traffickers for financing, supporting and arming violent groups.

Twenty-four hours before leaving Nicaragua after being expelled by the government, as part of the UN’s team from the Office on the High Commission of Human Rights, head of mission Guillermo Fernandez Maldonado, expressed his concern for the abandonment of the victims of repression who have the right to “truth, justice and compensation”.

In an interview with the Voice of America, Rosario Murillo’s daughter Zoilamerica Ortega Murillo, called Daniel Ortega’s government weak, and noted that as both an opportunity and a danger for Nicaraguans. She argues that Ortega has lost his legitimacy, and says that the country is undergoing a second process of liberation.

Daniel Ortega’s regime has unleashed a witch-hunt, targeting people who have participated in the demonstrations demanding an end to his dictatorship. The round-up has concentrated principally on university students who since April have been demanding that the government leave power.

According to the well-known feminist poet, Gioconda Belli, the international community must “act for the good of the Nicaraguans and convince Ortega that in this century there can no longer be tyrants who try to lock a country in a cage and throw the key out to the sea.”