Fears unrest over social security reforms may grow as more demonstrators join in and the state responds with heavy handViolent protests have spread across Nicaragua in response to government reforms of the social security system. The violence follows the decision of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) government to push through reforms to the national social security system in response to the financial crisis affecting the National Social Security Institute (INSS). Nicaragua president re-elected in landslide amid claims of rigged vote Read moreHowever, on Wednesday protests were organised in the capital, Managua, and the city of León. The protests against the social security reforms came on top of demonstrations the previous week against government inaction and even alleged collusion in relation to fires in the Indio Maíz biological reserve in Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast region. In June 2013, during another protest related to the social security system, police stood idly by as a group of pro-government supporters violently broke up a demonstration in support of pension rights for the elderly.

Source: The Guardian April 21, 2018 02:26 UTC