MANAGUA, April 6 (Reuters) - A gunman shot and lightly wounded Nicaragua's attorney general while he was exercising near his home in the capital on Monday, police said.
Hernan Estrada, a close ally of leftist President Daniel Ortega, was grazed by bullets when a man on a motorcycle fired at him, said Nicaragua's police chief Aminta Granera.
"This was a criminal act," Granera told a news conference, flanked by Estrada, who was taken to a hospital by his neighbors and discharged after being treated for a light neck wound.
Granera declined to give a motive for the attack, but Estrada said it was politically motivated.
He blamed "some religious leaders" and "some media outlets" who he said had been inciting violence against Ortega, a former foe of the United States who has struck up a close friendship with Venezuela's socialist president Hugo Chavez since returning to power in 2007.
Opponents of Ortega accuse him of trying to install a dictatorship after disputed municipal elections last year, in which his ruling Sandinistas won 105 of the 146 races.
Last month Ortega said the country's ban prohibiting presidents from serving a second term was unjust, suggesting he might try to amend the constitution to allow him to run again. (Reporting by Ivan Castro)
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