Nicaraguan students take to the streets to oppose government

Reuters - On Nicaragua's national Day of the Student Monday (July 23), hundreds of protesters took to the streets to march in opposition to the government of President Daniel Ortega. Protesters demanded justice for the students who have been killed in violence that has wracked this Central American country since April. The students and other protesters carried crosses hung with backpacks meant to symbolize the dead as they made their way to Managua's Central American University. Thousands of Nicaraguans have taken to the streets to demand the removal of President Daniel Ortega since protests first broke out in April against the former Marxist guerrilla leader over plans to cut welfare benefits. Ortega scrapped the cuts, but the violent repression of dissent sparked wider protests, leading to accusations that the president increasingly resembles former dictator Anastasio Somoza, whom Ortega helped to topple nearly 40 years ago.