BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil condemned the violence against anti-government protesters in Nicaragua and recalled its ambassador in Managua on Tuesday after the death of a Brazilian student.

Raynéia Gabrielle Lima, a medical student at the American University in Managua, was killed by gunshots in unclear circumstances on Monday, a Brazilian foreign ministry statement said.

“The Brazilian government condemns the worsening repression and disproportional and lethal use of violence and the use of paramilitary groups in operations coordinated by security teams,” the statement said.

“The Nicaraguan ambassador was called in to give an explanation and our ambassador has been recalled from Managua,” a ministry spokesperson said.

Almost 300 people have been killed in weeks of clashes in a clampdown on protests by President Daniel Ortega’s government. Ortega first took power in 1979 when Sandinista rebels overthrew the Somoza dictatorship. He returned to office in 2007.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in April over a new law that raised worker and employer social security contributions. Ortega scrapped the cuts, but the violent repression of dissent sparked wider protests.