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After months of near-constant protest in Nicaragua, at least 215 people are dead<\/a>, 1,000 are injured, and President Daniel Ortega \u2013 an authoritarian leader who once seemed invincible \u2013 is on his last legs.<\/p>\n Citizens first took to the streets of Managua in early April<\/a> after Ortega\u2019s government was slow to respond to a massive forest fire inside Indio Maiz, the nation\u2019s second-largest nature reserve. When the government quietly decided to tax retirees\u2019 pension checks and increase employers\u2019 insurance costs a week later, nationwide marches gained steam<\/a>.<\/p>\n Police soon began killing protesters<\/a>. What started as targeted, loosely organized protests quickly transformed into a movement<\/a>. The goal: to remove President Daniel Ortega<\/a> and his family from power.<\/p>\n Nicaragua vs. Goliath<\/strong><\/p>\n Can Nicaragua, Latin America\u2019s second poorest country<\/a>, bring down its mighty regime by simply refusing to leave the streets? Local history suggests it can.<\/p>\n I am a Latin American scholar currently based in Managua, Nicaragua<\/a>. My research on the ground suggests that presidents in this region who are challenged by mass protests fall much more frequently than one might suspect.<\/p>\n Most elected leaders in Latin America, a heavily democratic region, finish their terms. According to Christopher Martinez<\/a>, a political science professor at Chile\u2019s Temuco Catholic University, just 16 percent of South American presidents have resigned or been impeached since 1979.<\/p>\n However, that changes when leaders earn the ire of their citizens. Between 1985 and 2011, fully 70 percent of South American leaders who faced mass street protests were ultimately removed from office<\/a>.<\/p>\n