EU deplores Nicaragua crackdown, stands ready to help The EU says it stands ready to use all peaceful means available to prevent further human rights abuses in Nicaragua, where hundreds have died in a crackdown on protests since last year

BRUSSELS -- The European Union says it stands ready to use all peaceful means available to help prevent further human rights abuses in Nicaragua, where hundreds have died in a crackdown on protests since last year.

EU foreign ministers underlined in a statement Monday the bloc's "readiness to use all its policy instruments to contribute to a peaceful negotiated way out of the current crisis."

Those measures could include sanctions, although no explicit mention of them was made.

At least 325 people are thought to have died in the violent repression of street protests that began April 18, 2018, initially over social security cuts that have since been canceled.

Leaders and participants in the demonstrations have been arrested and jailed. The Nicaraguan government has said it was responding to a failed coup attempt.