At least two more die in fresh Nicaragua clashes

At least two more people died in violent protests overnight, a Nicaraguan rights group said Saturday, bringing to 137 the death toll since demonstrations demanding President Daniel Ortega step down began in April. The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) told AFP that one person had been killed in the northern city of Jinotega and another in Managua. The young man who died in Jinotega was killed during an armed attack on protesters who were guarding a road barricade intended to keep security forces back, according to student organizers. "Paramilitaries linked to the government gunned down boys who were fighting in the streets for liberty and democracy," said a statement from the city's student movement, calling it "a night of terror." In Managua, a young motorcyclist died from a bullet to the neck after two armed men aboard motorcycles chased and shot him, according to local press. "Unfortunately they still aren't showing political will -- they continue to kill people," one student leader, Victor Cuadras, told journalists upon landing in Managua after a trip to Washington. "They shed blood yesterday and early today," he said of Ortega's government. Demonstrators continued to block roads throughout Nicaragua as part of the mass protests demanding the ouster of Ortega, a former guerrilla who has held office for 11 years but who faces increasing opposition, even from onetime allies. The country's influential Catholic bishops met Thursday with Ortega to discuss a plan to reboot talks to quell the crisis, presenting "the pain and anguish of people who have suffered in recent weeks" to the leftist leader. Silvio Jose Baez, the auxiliary bishop of Managua, said Ortega "asked us for a period of reflection to give us an answer, which we asked he give us in writing" -- after which they will consider the feasibility of reviving talks. But amid the administrative back-and-forth the situation continues to spiral out of control, activists and rights groups say. "What a horror it is that this government is killing its people," tweeted well-known Nicaraguan author and activist Gioconda Belli. Meyling Jerez (R), mother of 19-year-old student Chester Chavarria, who was shot dead during anti-government protests at the Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN) is comforted by a relative at his son's wake, in Managua on June 8, 2018