By Sandra Cuffe
MOYOGALPA, Nicaragua
Security forces on Wednesday continued a weeklong crackdown on demonstrators against a planned interoceanic canal that protesters say threaten their communities, livelihood and the environment.
Police and military forces moved against demonstrators who had been protesting around the clock in El Tule, in the Río San Juan department. Security forces used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear the area.
At least 15 police officers and six civilians were wounded, according to National Police Director General Aminta Granera during a press conference. Community leaders in El Tule reported dozens of injuries to demonstrators.
Granera said 33 demonstrators were detained and will be charged with damage to property, assault, and endangerment.
A ground-breaking ceremony for the 173-mile, $50 billion shipping channel was held Monday amid ongoing protests and roadblocks along the planned canal route in communities that oppose the project.
An estimated 30,000 residents face land expropriations in order to make way for the canal and associated projects.
Police on Tuesday evicted a roadblock protest in Rivas, in southwestern Nicaragua. Octavio Ortega, an outspoken canal opponent and coordinator of the National Council for Land, the Lake and National Sovereignty, was among those arrested in the sweep.
Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) congressman Víctor Tinoco was stopped by police on his way home from El Tule. MRS opposition party president Ana Margarita Vijil was detained for several hours along with El Tule Land Defense Committee coordinator Freddy Orozco and two others as they traveled to Nueva Guinea, in the Southern Atlantic Autonomous Region.
Following the eviction and clashes in El Tule, local residents in Nueva Guinea on Wednesday lifted their weeklong protest in order to avoid further violence.
The Nicaraguan Human Rights Center denounced the government’s heavy-handed response. “We call on the government to stop the repression,” the group’s president Vilma Núñez told Confidencial.
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