Posted on 04/26/2005 6:37:53 PM PDT by HAL9000
MANAGUA (AFP) - Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos put the army and police on high alert amid mounting protests against bus fare hikes, which have prompted calls for the president to resign.Blaming the unrest on opposition Sandinistas, Bolanos said in an address to the nations he wanted the armed forces to be ready "to contribute to the maintenance of tranquillity and order in the country.
He also urged police to "take all necessary measures to ensure security and freedom of movement across national territory."
The announcement came hours after demonstrators hurled rocks Bolanos, who had to be dragged back into the presidential palace by security guards as a hail of stones and plastic bags full of water fell on him when he and other government members walked outside the presidential palace.
One of his sons, Enrique, suffered a head injury and was taken away in an ambulance, according to local media. Homemade bombs were also set off during the demonstration which followed clashes on Monday in which 22 people were injured, including two police, and 68 demonstrators were arrested.
The conservative leader insisted he would not stand down, but he has called off a trip to Mexico planned to start Wednesday because of the growing crisis in the Central American country.
"When have you seen me hang up my gloves?" Bolanos asked journalists rhetorically. "I was here in the 1980s, during the Sandanista revolution, they slandered me, they cursed me and I am here just as cool as Johnny Walker" the strutting whisky icon, he said.
Bolanos said he wanted a dialogue but that the protesters had rejected his offer. "They want to create chaos, they want a crisis," he said. The authorities say that gasoline price increases have force them to put up fares for buses by three percent.
The buses are mainly used by the poor and students who have made up many of the demonstrators. Ninety-six of Nicaragua's 152 mayors, some from Bolanos' Liberal party, demanded the president resign if he cannot handle the unrest.
"If the president cannot or does not wish to take responsibility for the job he was elected to, with all respect and seriousness we ask him to resign," said the statement, signed Monday by mayors from Bolanos' rightist Liberal Constitutional Party and the leftist Sandanista National Liberation Front.
The Nicaraguan capital came to a virtual standstill as bus drivers went on strike in solidarity with the protests and many people chose to stay home. Most schools were also closed while police stepped up patrols in key areas of the city.
On Monday police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up protests by students and unions, which have been worsening in recent weeks. One police officer was seriously injured after he was hit in the chest by a homemade mortar, police said. Another officer lost an eye.
The Communists have never given up and would love to return things to the way they were circa 1980.
I think we need to send jima cater and jima McDermott on a fact finding mission.
LOL!
Thank God for Reagan. Really flushed out the commies in Central America and the Carribean.
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