MANAGUA – Nicaraguan daily La Prensa, a critic of the Sandinista government, reported in its Thursday edition that its presses had been damaged as a result of “sabotage” but added that the daily’s circulation had not been impeded.

The paper’s chief printer, Alvaro Rivera, as well as engineers in charge of maintenance for the company’s equipment did not rule out that “there could have been political intent in this attack that strikes at the heart of the newspaper.”

However, the La Prensa technicians did not suggest possible authors of the alleged sabotage or divulge whether they will file a criminal complaint with the authorities on the deed, which occurred in a highly restricted area of the firm’s facilities.

The technicians, who did not specify the date of the alleged sabotage, said that the damage was discovered after abnormal noises were heard during the operation of the press and it was subsequently found that gears in the transmission box were broken and that the oil reservoir contained objects that did not belong to the newspaper.

La Prensa, founded in 1926, said that the damage comes “at a time when the government (of Daniel Ortega) is pursuing more aggressive discourse against the independent communications media.”

It also noted that last week, pro-government mobs fired large firecrackers with homemade mortars at the facilities of the dailies La Prensa and Hoy on the northern outskirts of Managua. EFE