Nicaragua frees 222 imprisoned opponents, who were expelled to the United States for “traitors”

More than 200 opponents were released Thursday in Nicaragua by the government of Daniel Ortega, deprived of their political rights, stripped of their nationality and “deported” to the United States.

The surprise announcement comes as Ortega is facing pressure from his government’s growing authoritarianism.

A Managua court confirmed the release and expulsion of the 222 opponents. The complete list was later published by the government.

Among them are former presidential candidate Cristiana Chamorro and her brother and former minister Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, as well as other politicians who wanted to challenge Ortega in the last elections. Both are sons of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997).

Two other members of the Chamorro family linked to the newspaper La Prensa, which is now published online in exile, and former guerrilla commander Dora María Téllez were also released and expelled to the United States.

US officials said they will allow the prisoners to stay in the country for at least two years and provide them with medical and legal support.

“We are here in the land of freedom and we are very grateful,” one of the released prisoners, economist and former presidential candidate Juan Sebastián Chamorro, told reporters at the hotel to which he was transferred.

“It has been 20 months behind bars, in a maximum security prison, totally incommunicado but here we are with our heads held high,” said Violeta Chamorro’s nephew-in-law.

deported for traitors

Ortega has not commented on the expulsion of the prisoners, but plans to speak on national television this Thursday. Magistrate Octavio Rothschuh, president of a section of the Managua Court of Appeals, said that the 222 people were “deported” for being “traitors to the country.”

Ortega’s vice president and wife, Rosario Murillo, told official media that the decision was made “in the supreme interest of our country to live in harmony, to live working and prospering from peace.”

Some Nicaraguans see the release as a sign of goodwill toward the United States, which has imposed sanctions on Managua and welcomed the move. Others believe that it is to get rid of imprisoned opponents.

stripped of nationality

The judge informed that all were deprived in perpetuity of their political rights, and the government will withdraw their Nicaraguan nationality.

“The deportees” are “perpetually disqualified from exercising public office […]as well as hold positions of popular election, their citizen rights being perpetually suspended”, said the magistrate.

On the other hand, the Parliament made up of supporters of Ortega approved on Thursday a law according to which the “Traitors to the homeland lose the quality of Nicaraguan national.” The rule requires a second legislative approval in the second half of this year, which is taken for granted.

Hundreds of opponents were detained in Nicaragua in the context of the repression that followed the protests that broke out in 2018 against Ortega, in power since 2007 and successively reelected in disputed elections.

US hails “constructive step”

The news was greeted by the United States government and by exiled Nicaraguans.

The head of US diplomacy Antony Blinken praised the release, saying it could open the way for more dialogue with Ortega.

“The release of these individuals, one of whom is a U.S. 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 in a statement.

Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez, who was Ortega’s vice president in his first term (1985-1990), and is currently in exile in Spain, expressed his satisfaction.

“Today is a great day for the fight for the freedom of Nicaragua as so many unjustly convicted or prosecuted prisoners are released from prisons, prisons where they should never have been. They go into exile, but they go to freedom,” Ramírez tweeted. (YO)