Nicaraguan national police and armed pro-government civilians laid siege today to a symbolically important neighborhood that has recently become a center of resistance to President Daniel Ortega-s government.

Government forces began advancing on Masaya-s Monimbo neighborhood before dawn. The same neighborhood-s residents rose up against strongman Anastasio Somoza in the late 1970s as part of the Nicaraguan Revolution led in part by Ortega himself. But since protests against cuts to the social security system in mid-April became a broader call for Ortega to leave office, Monimbo has again become a center of the opposition.