Ortega calls for 'peace' as toll mounts in Nicaragua

Nicaraguan forces on Friday attacked a university in the capital Managua and a neighborhood in opposition bastion Masaya, killing two in the latest violence to convulse the Central American country hit by months of unrest.

Political tensions have soared since protests against a now-aborted pension reform began on April 18 and mushroomed into general opposition to President Daniel Ortega and his government.

Friday's attacks came as Ortega called for peace during a day of strikes, the second in three months of anti-government protests that have left over 270 dead.

Two people were killed when government forces opened fire on the combative neighborhood of Monimbo, south Masaya, as Ortega and his supporters began a procession from the capital to the opposition stronghold, 30 kilometers (19 miles) south. One was a policeman, a local rights group representative told AFP.

The march was to celebrate the June 1979 "retreat" that saw thousands of guerrillas withdraw from Managua to Masaya to regroup, before securing victory on July 19 when president Anastasio Somoza fled the country.

On Friday, protesters erected barricades and vowed to prevent the former leftist guerrilla's procession from passing through. It was delayed and limited to a driven caravan.

But where Ortega was once hunkered down with allies in Masaya fighting against a dictatorship, the 72-year-old head of state now is now the one hated in the rebel heartland.

In Masaya, Ortega accused the opposition of acting "with venom and hate," and appealed for a return to "the road of peace."

Elsewhere at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, where students have been holed up since protests began, a medic reported several injuries after pro-government forces opened fire.

"They all came with firearms, they came to kill," one young person told reporters from a church near the university.

SECOND STRIKE

Meanwhile, banks, markets, gas stations, schools and shops kept their doors locked among deserted streets as Nicaragua's opposition staged a 24-hour general strike on Friday, a day after five people were killed in violence surrounding anti-government protests.