MEXICO CITY — Some 222 inmates considered by many to be political prisoners of the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega flew to Washington on Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Blinken said the prisoners had been imprisoned “for exercising their fundamental freedoms and have endured long unjust detentions.”
“The release of these individuals, one of whom is a US citizen, by the Nicaraguan government marks a constructive step to address human rights abuses in the country and opens the door for further dialogue between the United States and Nicaragua. on issues of concern. Blinken said.
He said that among those on the plane were political and business leaders, journalists, civil society representatives and students. Blinken credited “concerted American diplomacy.”
Ortega has maintained that his jailed opponents and others were behind the 2018 street protests that he claimed were a plot to overthrow him. Tens of thousands have fled into exile since Nicaraguan security forces violently cracked down on those anti-government protests.
The last count by the Nicaraguan opposition of detained “political prisoners” had been 245. It was not immediately clear who was not released.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Nicaragua had identified 224 prisoners to be sent on the plane, but two of them refused. They were not identified.
Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez was on a list of 39 prisoners not on the plane compiled by the non-governmental group Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners.
Price said those who came to Washington did so voluntarily and would receive humanitarian parole that would allow them to stay in the country for two years. They were staying in hotels under the responsibility of the US Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security, and the government would work with non-governmental organizations to assist them in their resettlement.
“It was the Nicaraguan government that decided to offer these people the opportunity to travel to the United States,” Price said. “When I say that this is the product of US commitment, as you know, we have long called for the release of people imprisoned in Nicaragua for exercising their fundamental freedoms as a first step towards restoring democracy and a better climate of human rights in Nicaragua. . .”
Back in Nicaragua, a judge read a statement saying that the 222 prisoners had been “deported.”
Octavio Rothschuh, a magistrate of the Managua Court of Appeals, said the deportation was carried out under an order issued Wednesday declaring the prisoners “traitors to the country.” He said that they were deported for actions that undermine the independence and sovereignty of Nicaragua.
Later Thursday, the Nicaraguan Congress unanimously approved a constitutional change that allows “traitors” to be stripped of their nationality. It will require a second vote in the next legislative session later this year.
Wilma Núñez, president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, said in a statement that while the release of the prisoners is welcome, “deportation is a legal term that is applied to foreigners who commit crimes in a country. They want to call exile deportation, which is absolutely arbitrary and is prohibited by international human rights standards.”
Arturo McFields, Nicaragua’s former ambassador to the Organization of American States, welcomed the release, which he said the US State Department had confirmed to him.
“It’s a mass release” of prisoners that you rarely see, McFields said. He credited the families of the prisoners for never letting up on the pressure.
Berta Valle, wife of opposition leader Félix Maradiaga, said the State Department told her her husband was on the plane.
According to US officials, those on board the flight also included Cristiana Chamorro, who had been a prominent presidential candidate before her arrest in 2021. The daughter of former President Violeta Chamorro, she was sentenced last March to eight years in prison. She was convicted of money laundering through her mother’s non-governmental organization while Ortega went after NGOs that received foreign funding. She was under house arrest.
Other former presidential hopefuls, Arturo Cruz and Juan Sebastián Chamorro, were also on the flight, US officials said.
Ortega ramped up his search for political opponents in early 2021, seeking to clear the field ahead of presidential elections in November of that year. Security forces arrested seven potential presidential candidates and Ortega won a fourth consecutive term in elections that the United States and other countries called a sham.
Nicaraguan judges sentenced several opposition leaders, including former senior officials of the ruling Sandinista movement and former presidential candidates, to prison terms for “conspiracy to undermine national integrity.”
Given the notoriously poor conditions at the infamous El Chipote prison and elsewhere, as well as the age of some of the opposition leaders, relatives feared the terms could be death sentences.
Hugo Torres, a former Sandinista guerrilla leader who once led a raid that helped free the rebel Ortega from prison, has died while awaiting trial. He was 73 years old.
Nicaraguan judges also sentenced five Catholic priests to prison this week for conspiracy and spreading false information. It was not immediately clear if any of them were on the flight.
