Show caption A protester walks between burning barricades in Managua following days of deadly protests across Nicaragua. Photograph: Alfredo Zuniga/AP Nicaragua Five people die as anti-government protests spread across Nicaragua Fears unrest over social security reforms may grow as more demonstrators join in and the state responds with heavy hand Guardian correspondent in Managua Sat 21 Apr 2018 03.33 BST Share on Facebook

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Violent protests have spread across Nicaragua in response to government reforms of the social security system. Between five and 10 people had been killed by Friday night during three days of rioting, reports said.

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).

The reforms, which went into effect on Wednesday, apply a 5% tax to old-age and disability pensions and increase the contributions paid by both employees and employers. Some reports over Friday night put the death toll.

Riot police agents clash with protesters in Managua on Friday. Photograph: Inti Ocon/AFP/Getty Images

Consecutive governments have been accused of using the INSS as a source of “petty cash”, leaving many people feeling that pensioners and workers are now being forced to pay the price for the system’s mismanagement.

In a national radio address on Tuesday, the official government spokeswoman, Rosario Murillo – who is also the country’s vice-president and the wife of the president, Daniel Ortega – defended the reforms, stressing the retirement age had not been raised from 60, the number of weekly contributions required for a state pension would remain at 750 and pensioners would still receive their one-month Christmas bonus.

However, on Wednesday protests were organised in the capital, Managua, and the city of León. The government responded with counter-marches and positioning supporters on Managua roundabouts in a show of force. At one protest, members of the Sandinista Youth were filmed violently confronting peaceful protesters on the Masaya Highway as the national police watched on.

In a radio address, Murillo responded that the protesters were trying to destroy the peace the government had built in Nicaragua, comparing them to “vampires, needing blood to feed their political agendas”.

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.

Alleged fraud in the country’s electoral processes in recent years have allowed Ortega to control the country’s national assembly and make important constitutional changes, including his own right to serve more than two terms as president. He now controls all branches of government, while reforms to the laws regulating the army and national police have also brought those institutions into line behind him.

A demonstrator carries a sign that reads in Spanish “Free Nicaragua. No to Repression!”. Photograph: Alfredo Zuniga/AP

At the same time, the government has responded with a heavy hand against any form of opposition. 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.

But this time the protests appear to have escaped the government’s control, spreading from Managua to the traditional FSLN strongholds of León and Estelí, as well as other cities, including Masaya, Matagalpa and Bluefields on the Caribbean side of the country.

Protesters again took to the streets on Friday, where the police and government supporters were also out in force. With more violence erupting, the president of the business umbrella organisation COSEP called on “the forces of public order to work in accordance with the norms of our constitution”.