U.S. citizen shot dead in Nicaraguan prison was a Navy veteran, critic of President Ortega

A Nicaraguan living in Costa Rica holds a portrait of U.S. citizen Eddy Montes while protesting in support of him after he was killed in a prison shooting near Managua where he was held in after his arrest in May last year during months of anti-government protests in Nicaragua, in front of the Nicaragua Embassy in San Jose, Costa Rica, May 17, 2019. REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Eddy Montes, a protestor shot dead in a Nicaragua prison this week, was a naturalized U.S. citizen who served in the Navy, but ultimately returned to the Central American country where he fought for a change in government, his family said.

Montes died on Thursday after he and other prisoners tried to snatch a gun from a guard while the International Red Cross was visiting the prison, the Nicaraguan interior ministry said, adding that the guard acted in self-defence.