Spain offers citizenship to exiled opponents of Nicaragua

Two hundred and twenty-two political prisoners released yesterday by the government of Nicaragua were exiled from the country, sent to the United States and stripped of their citizenshipas a measure imposed by the Court of Managua.

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

The Nicaraguan political prisoners learned that they had been released and expelled at the doors of the plane that took them this Thursday from Nicaragua to the United States, where they were received at the Washington International Airport.

The Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, welcomed the exiles. “We salute the 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners released today by the Government of Nicaragua. We will continue to support better conditions for the Nicaraguan people,” Blinken wrote on Twitter.

The United States is not the only country that offered its support. The government of Spain will offer Spanish nationality to Nicaraguans, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares.

“The government offers Spanish nationality to these 222 released prisoners, given the news that the process has begun to declare them stateless,” Albares told Spanish media outlet Servimedia, information confirmed by the ministry to AFP.

Albares specified that they will come into contact with the opponents, and that the process could be fast, through the letter of naturalization.

“We also offer to Spain to welcome any other prisoner who is still in the same situation at this time as those who have just been released,” said the minister.

According to a statement from the European Union, the entity feels “satisfaction and relief” for the release of political prisoners, and affirms that it is “open to political dialogue with Nicaragua, as long as it is through appropriate diplomatic channels and in a respectful manner.”

Daniel Ortega He also ruled on the “deportation” of opponents. The president insisted that there was no “negotiation” with the US for the release of the prisoners and that they did not ask Washington for anything in exchange for receiving them.

(YO)