The young person is sobbing in the WhatsApp audio message, speaking from Barrio Sandino in the Nicaraguan city of Jinotega. 'Three young people were killed here just yesterday,' they say, breathing in sharply to steady their voice. 'They had been fighting the Nicaraguan police.' Before hanging up they ask me not to name them in my story due to fear of repercussions.
At its height in the 1980s, the international solidarity movement for Nicaragua had thousands of supporters, including many in Australia. The Central American nation was undergoing severe repression at the hands of dictator Anastasio Somoza.
Hopes for peace, justice and democracy were embodied in the Sandinistas, the rebel socialist movement in which current Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega was a leader; fighting the Somoza regime before it fell to the Sandinistas in 1979 as well as the 'contras', the US-backed army of insurrectionists trained by the CIA with the explicit aim of destabilising the new Sandinista government.
In these years the Nicaraguan people's struggle for freedom inspired members of the solidarity movement to travel to Nicaragua to provide aid, to raise funds bound for the local effort to rebuild the country in the image of peace and socialism, and to place pressure on their governments to act in Nicaragua's interests.
Fast-forward around 30 years and a Nicaraguan rebel movement is again calling for international solidarity as its members face repression from their national political leaders. But this time, Daniel Ortega is on the government's side. He's being held responsible for repressing peaceful public protests and refusing to enable new democratic elections.
In recent protests against the Ortega government it is estimated that between 250 and 300 people were killed by police or paramilitaries. There are credible reports that paramilitary forces backed by the Ortega administration have been pursuing and killing citizens believed to be engaged with the opposition movements. The hashtag #SOSNicaragua is all over social media and corresponding rallies have been held in cities across the world.
At one such event in Mexico City last week, I met Lisaura, a young woman from Nicaragua whose family remains in their home country. 'A defenseless people is being attacked with high caliber weapons and the government has the cynicism to say they are not responsible,' she said, her face radiating worry for her loved ones.
"Nicaraguans have the democratic right to protest peacefully, the people of Nicaragua have been protesting peacefully and the government is shooting them.