I’ve known John Perry since 1998; we’ve worked with a local solidarity organisation in Masaya across a range of different projects. It saddens me that he has painted the protests in Nicaragua as a rightwing conspiracy (Letters, 28 July).

The numbers of dead in Nicaragua since the violence began are disputed: on 16 June the government reported only 34 dead, but the Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights reported 170; by 27 July Bloomberg reported 448. What is not in dispute is that of the true total most were shot dead by paramilitary/death squad activity controlled by the Ortega dictatorship.

Student protest in Nicaragua is a long-hallowed tradition, but now – as during the Somoza dictatorship – they are being murdered by squads of organised, well-armed, masked men.

Ortega claims his is a legitimate government – if you leave aside rigging the supreme judicial and supreme electoral courts to shut out rival parties, the creation of extra FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) deputies in the national assembly to change the constitution to make the presidency Ortega family property, and countless other attacks on democracy.

The barricade-builders have certainly been guilty of atrocities, although far fewer than the regime. It is also true that Ortega used Venezuelan oil money to do substantial work in alleviating poverty in a way previous governments chose not to. But meanwhile, regime corruption continues unabated, democracy is a joke, and the blood of murdered youth runs in the streets.

Dr Jon Cloke

Leicester

• I respect John Perry’s point of view and his desire for peace on his street. We all want that. However, his myopic view misses the point. The point being that we in Nicaragua are living under a vicious dictatorship where as I speak people are being tortured in jails around the country. His letter reflects a deep lack of understanding of the issues at hand here and, I fear, plays into the hands of a despotic leader who with the support of just 8% of the population according to current polls, an imploding economy where banks are on the edge of collapse, and over 25,000 refugee requests being processed by Costa Rican authorities as thousands flee the repression, is currently spinning his denial of the facts to foreign governments in the hopes of winning back their moral support and financial aid to bolster his flagging regime. Military-style weapons are being used to kill innocent people here, and those weapons are only available from one place, the military. Enjoy the respite, John, but I can assure you that it will be short-lived. The Nicaraguan people have risen up and they will not be assuaged by the platitudes of false gods or foreigners who see things through rose-coloured glasses.

Dr Keith Willcock

Masatepe, Nicaragua

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