Violent Protests Against Nicaraguan MFIs
Schmidt, B.

A special investigative police commission is looking into violent protests at the offices of a microfinance firm in northern Nicaragua that left five police injured and one civilian blinded in one eye with a rubber bullet. The protests turned violent after President Daniel Ortega told indebted protesters to march on bank offices earlier this month in a speech in the northern farming town of Jalapa.

Police Chief Aminta Granera told reporters Tuesday that when four police arrived to secure the entrance of the microfinance firm Fundenuse in Ocotal, Nuevo Segovia, so that workers could enter and exit safely, the officers were confronted by protesters wielding machetes, shovels, and Molotov cocktails.

Fundenuse is one of several microfinance firms that have closed their doors for more than a week since protesters took to their offices, and in some cases threatening employees, according to a statement from the Nicaraguan Association of Microfinanciers (ASOMIF).

"We express our surprise and worry for declarations made by the president of the republic on July 12 in Jalapa, calling for a renegotiation with microfinanciers, even though we've already agreed to a debt restructuring agreement with the members of the movement, with (Sandinista) legislators as witnesses," ASOMIF said in a statement.

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