Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Army’s role under spotlight

minus
plus

Maria Isabel SANCHEZ -


The presence of armed and hooded paramilitaries on the streets of Nicaragua has sparked calls for the army to intervene to end two months of unrest that has killed more than 200 people.


Human rights groups have consistently denounced the shady pro-government forces which are accused of being involved in the killing of scores of anti-government protesters.


“You cannot have two armies in this country. Under the constitution, the Nicaraguan army should disarm the paramilitaries,” said a former ambassador to the US, Carlos Tunnerman, now a member of a civil society delegation in talks with the government to end the unrest.


The protests began in April as demonstrations against now-scrapped social security reforms, but a heavy-handed police reaction transformed them into demands for justice for those killed, and for the exit of President Daniel Ortega and his wife Vice-President Rosario Murillo.


The military has publicly committed itself not to take part in repression of anti-government protests, and called for dialogue and an end to the violence.


But its attitude has been criticised as ambiguous. When Ortega appeared in public for the first time since the beginning of the protests, he was accompanied by the army chief, General Julio Cesar Aviles. And residents in flashpoint areas have reported the presence of soldiers or ex-soldiers siding with riot police during clashes.


“If the army is claiming to contribute to a peaceful solution through dialogue, it must disarm paramilitary groups,” said Edmundo Jarquin, a former presidential candidate and member of a dissident wing of Ortega’s leftist Sandinista party.


Several analysts said that the army’s main aim is to defend its own economic interests.


Through an offshoot financial arm, the military controls construction, real estate and financial companies, as well as a hospital, and has investments in the New York Stock Exchange, said military analyst Roberto Orozco.


“That could be one of the factors that could tip the balance. When your corporate interests are threatened or when you reach a situation of total ungovernability,” he said.


Defence and security specialist Elvira Cuadra said “the position of the army with respect to the Ortega-Murillo government has been more of an alliance than of subordination.”


“This is down to its institutional strength, the force of arms and the economic power it has acquired over several decades,” she said. — AFP


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon