Opponent of Nicaragua canal says he was badly beaten by police

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Opponent of Nicaragua canal says he was badly beaten by police

Jonathan Watts, Latin American correspondent
The Guardian, Friday 2 January 2015 14.47 GMT

A leading opponent of Nicaragua’s transoceanic canal says he was brutally beaten with batons, rifle-butted in the face and illegally detained by police after he organised a protest against the inauguration of the Chinese-funded project.

Photographs of his injuries, including a black eye and badly bruised back, have been published on social media.

In his first interview with the foreign media since he was released on 30 December, Octavio Ortega, president of the Fundemar NGO, told the Guardian he was physically abused before he was put in jail.

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He said police demanded to know whether he was working for the CIA and that he only received the right medication for his hypertension and diabetes on the fifth day of his seven-day detention.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/02/opponent-nicaragua-canal-beaten-police

[DetlefK]

1. How dare you get in the way of Big Money?

1. The canal is built by the Chinese and we know how much they care about pollution and people's rights.

2. It will actually be two canals, one from the West and one from the East, meeting in a large lake in the center of Nicaragua. The lake is an important freshwater-ressource and there are fears that seawater will spoil him. But the nicaraguan government says: "Don't worry. We are sure, everything will be fine."

[Bacchus4.0]

2. yep, the project is moving forward, they don't care about the people impacted or

the environmental destruction.