By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Reuters
reports that Eddy Montes, a protester, was
shot dead in a Nicaragua prison this week. He was
a naturalized U.S. citizen who served in the Navy,
but ultimately returned to the Central American
country where he fought for a change in
government, his family said.
Montes died Thursday after he and other prisoners
tried to snatch a gun from a guard while the
International Red Cross was visiting the prison,
the Nicaraguan interior ministry said, adding that
the guard acted in self-defense. He had been
jailed after protesting against Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega in October last year,
during protests that have killed at least 300
people. The protests erupted over welfare benefits
but spiraled into a broader movement to oust
Ortega, who is serving his third term as
president.
Angered by Montes’ death, opposition groups said
Friday that they would stage new protests over the
weekend.
The U.S. State Department condemned his death as a
killing at the hands of Nicaraguan riot police and
urged the government to thoroughly investigate the
incident. It also called for other political
prisoners to be released.
“The lack of justice for these prisoners and for
the hundreds of innocent civilians killed by
Ortega’s security and para-police forces shows the
regime’s utter disregard for human life and
democratic freedoms,” it said in a statement.
The Nicaraguan government prohibited the
demonstrations last November and has accused the
protesters of intending to cause chaos.
Montes had spent much of his childhood and young
adult years in the United States, family members
say, but returned to Nicaragua in the early 1980s
to study medicine. Ortega and his leftist
Sandinista party had come to power a year earlier.
In 1984, Montes organized a protest after the
Sandinista government passed a law to introduce
military service. Gloria Montenegro, his wife of
18 years, said his activism had put him on the
radar of the government.
“With those anti-government protests, he became a
target [for the government],” Montenegro said,
recalling a time during the Cold War when
dissidents were backed by the United States and
the Nicaraguan government by the former USSR.
“So we fled to Costa Rica and after that to the
United States, where he decided to join the U.S.
Navy.” Montes was based out of San Diego. Later,
he worked in real estate.
Montes returned to Nicaragua in 1993 and bought
farmland in his native Matagalpa. It was not long
until he joined anti-government protests again.
“He was always seen as an opponent,” said Yader
Valdivia, an attorney who once worked with the
Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights and is now in
exile in Costa Rica. “When the protests began, he
began to help by bringing in food, supplies and
medicine to the students,” Jafet Montes, his
daughter, who lives in California, said.
Ortega should be held responsible, she said.
“I blame the government, I blame the president,
because he controls everything that happens in
that country,” she said.
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Did the United States government take too long to
request an investigation into Montes’ case after
he was jailed in October last year? We
would like to know your thoughts on this story.
Send your comments to: news@amcostarica.com
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