Nicaraguan Police Break Up Skirmish Between Sandinistas and Foes After March

Riot police intervened Sunday to separate dozens of Sandinista and opposition activists who rushed at each other in downtown Leon after a march by 1,200 people seeking the Sandinista government’s electoral defeat.

No one was injured or arrested in the few brief skirmishes that occurred, but the incident was a sign that the campaign for national elections next February could be as physical as it is political.

Leon, 53 miles northwest of Managua, was a guerrilla stronghold during the Sandinista-led uprising that toppled the dictatorship of President Anastasio Somoza. The leftist Sandinista Front, which is marking its 10th anniversary in power this month, and the 14-party National Opposition Union had police permits to march along different routes of the city’s cobblestone streets to separate destinations.

The confrontation started when dozens of young Sandinistas strayed from their route and fell in step behind the opposition parade, taunting the marchers.

At the end of the route, groups of 50 to 100 people on each side charged at each other until helmeted Sandinista police with clubs intervened. Capt. Ernesto Cuadra, the police chief in Leon, ordered the Sandinista militants to withdraw. Then an opposition organizer asked anti-government marchers to withdraw, and the crowds dispersed.