A meeting of the Nicaraguan bishops had been announced, and it was actually held yesterday, to take stock of the situation and above all to consider the future, which is now hanging by a thread, of national Dialogue, of which the bishops are the mediators and witnesses. At the end, though, no release was issued, and no decision was taken. The situation is still very tense and uncertain. The news that keep coming from the country’s towns don’t help either. Yesterday, the Sandino barrio of Jinotega (140 km north-east of Managua) was heavily attacked by the paramilitary forces. And the special police forces threatened more people and arrested more young protesters. Also in Jinotega, the chapel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was desecrated: the damaged shrine was found near the church.

And the new statements made by president Daniel Ortega, who gave his first interview to an independent media in the last decade yesterday, on Special Report, a Fox News programme, don’t help either. The president ruled out, again, the chance of having early presidential election instead of 2021, because early election “would cause instability”; and he denied that it is the Government that supports the paramilitary forces, saying that they are funded by drug dealing and by the United States themselves. Statements that clash with all evidence and with the international organisations’ reports.