Author: Tom Phillips / Source: the Guardian
One of Nicaragua’s most prominent journalists has accused the “criminal dictatorship” of the country’s president, Daniel Ortega, of launching a brazen attack on the press after police raided, ransacked and commandeered his newsroom in the latest chapter of an escalating crackdown on dissent.
Carlos Fernando Chamorro, the editor of Confidencial, a combative newsletter and website, said officers had stormed its headquarters in the capital Managua late on Thursday night, seizing laptops and computers, and had returned at about 10.30pm on Friday to occupy the premises.
When Chamorro tried to visit his newsroom on Saturday morning, he found it guarded by armed police. He demanded to see documents explaining why it had been seized, but was ignored.
“They have taken our newsroom … They are physically closing down our offices by taking them militarily,” Chamorro said by telephone on Saturday morning.
“The national police has been transformed into a delinquent force by its supreme chief, the dictator Daniel Ortega,” Chamorro told the guards, denouncing their “absolutely illegal occupation”.
The Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli was also present. She attacked Ortega’s “intolerable” attack on the press and democracy. “This is an act of revenge,”
Later, as Chamorro and a group of journalists and supporters sought answers at the police headquarters in Managua,
“Orteguismo knows only how to respond with violence,”
He called…
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