MEXICO CITY — More than 350 people, the majority of them students and protesters, have died since April in Nicaragua, where a broad social movement seeking the resignation of President Daniel Ortega was ignited by an aborted pension reform.

In a country of a little over six million inhabitants, the number of dead, jailed and missing is striking. Almost 40 years after Mr. Ortega and the Sandinista Front overthrew the corrupt and bloody Somoza dynasty that ruled Nicaragua for nearly half a century, students and activists are calling for the departure of what they consider an unforgivable historical repetition. “Ortega y Somoza, son la misma cosa” (Ortega and Somoza are the same thing) is their rallying cry.

Peasants, activists, the National Autonomous University, former and current opposition leaders have all come under attack; female protesters and even children have all become victims of Daniel Ortega’s goon squads. The regime is rapidly becoming a dictatorship, something that the Latin American and international communities should do whatever they can to stop. No one wants another Venezuela in the region.

While the regional and international community was initially slow to react to the repression in Nicaragua, they have recently begun to take a more active role. The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, issued a statement condemning the violence last week; the Organization of American States approved a resolution condemning the repression and calling for “timely, free and fair” presidential elections. An ad hoc group of nations from Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, had denounced the carnage in Managua and in the iconic city of Masaya, which harbored the most heroic resistance against Somoza back in the ’70s.