On Saturday, tens of thousands of people, government protesters and supporters alike, demonstrated in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua.

Dora Maria Tellez, who was a main figure in President Daniel Ortega’s government during the 1980s but who now leads an opposition party, said, “The only way for the government to change, as it has been shown in all these years, is for the people to go to the streets.”

She added, “There is no other way.”

The protests appeared to be peaceful. It was not immediately clear how many of the masses were demonstrating against the government and how many had gathered to support it.

The anti-government protesters are demonstrating against Ortega’s bid for re-election and the anniversary of last year’s municipal elections, which the president’s leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front party resoundingly won amid allegations of fraud.

The country’s supreme court lifted on October 19 a constitutional ban on consecutive presidential terms, clearing the way for Ortega to run in 2011.

(article and photo source: CNN)

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