Nicaragua Private Sector Calls for Major Change

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES – If you asked anyone less than a month ago who were the most important civilian allies of the Ortega-Murillo government in Nicaragua, many would have said, the Catholic Church and COSEP the umbrella Private Sector organization.

After the student uprising that began on April 18^th and was violently repressed by the government’s paramilitary forces and riot police, with a death toll of at least 46 and rising, everything has apparently changed.

On Thursday the Catholic bishops and their Episcopal Conference, the designated mediators in a possible dialogue, said such a series of meetings would have to examine the country’s entire political system.

Following the bishops, the private business sector came out in mass to demand an “independent and credible” investigation into the deaths recorded in the April protests, deep reforms to the Electoral Power [dominated by Ortega cronies] and the Nicaraguan Social Security (INSS) and the reconstruction of the rule of law in the country.

Signed by virtually every business grouping in the country, the united private sector affirmed:

“We, the Nicaraguan private sector, aware of the moments we are living, committed to the development of the country, express our confidence and full support for the Episcopal Conference in its role as mediator and witness in the national dialogue, which must be installed Immediately” the statement said.