Nicaragua’s Ortega blames US conspiracy for deadly unrest, as he marks anniversary of Sandinista revolution

Nicaragua’s veteran President Daniel Ortega claimed Thursday to have beaten back a US-backed “conspiracy” to topple his government, as he marked the 39th anniversary of the left-wing revolution that first brought him to power.

“It has been a painful battle. Painful because we have confronted an armed conspiracy financed by internal forces we know and external forces,” he said, after days of lethal offensives against protesters.

He accused “the North American empire” of being involved in the attempted “coup d’etat,” alongside rightwing domestic business chiefs.

The 72-year-old leader, standing by his wife, Vice-President Rosario Murillo, and the foreign ministers of Cuba and Venezuela, addressed thousands of supporters waving flags of Ortega’s ruling Sandinista party in a Managua esplanade.

The supporters, some there with their children, sang along to a Spanish rap version of John Lennon’s Give Peace a Chance as they hailed the president and his spouse.

Three months of unrest in what used to be one of Latin America’s safest countries has seen more than 280 people killed, most of them protesting youths.