MASAYA, Nicaragua—The streets of this largely indigenous city are strewn with rubble and mostly deserted. Bullet holes dot the colonnade of the city’s main plaza. The police station is the last remaining government stronghold.
“We are going to make hamburger meat out of them,” said a masked man armed with a homemade bazooka, referring to dozens of police who remain loyal to the embattled President Daniel Ortega.
Since...