Nicaragua deports hundreds of political prisoners to the US Mysterious: Russian satellite disintegrates in space

Nicaragua’s authoritarian government has forcibly returned 222 prisoners who human rights activists say were held for political reasons. Among them are politicians, priests and student leaders, virtually all of whom are considered opponents of President Daniel Ortega. The US government welcomed the release on Thursday (local time). US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the move would allow further dialogue between the United States and the Central American country. The US facilitated the safe transportation of freedmen from Nicaragua to Washington.

The country’s judiciary did not announce the release until the former prisoners were already on the plane. “They were sent to Washington on a private flight,” said Berta Valle, wife of former presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga, who has also been released from prison. At the same time, the Nicaraguan parliament on Thursday approved a constitutional amendment to strip the deportees of their Nicaraguan citizenship.

The release of the “unjustly detained” is the result of targeted US diplomacy and a “constructive” contribution to addressing human rights violations in Nicaragua, Blinken explains. Due to the erosion of democracy under Ortega, the United States and the European Union had repeatedly imposed sanctions on the country’s leaders and the president’s family.

The official list of those released also included ex-presidential candidate Cristiana Chamorro, daughter of former head of state Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, and student leader Lesther Alemán.

In a televised speech Friday night, Ortega said there had been no negotiations with the US government. He expects nothing in return. His government, on its own initiative, contacted the US embassy in Managua to suggest that the detainees leave the country. The details were then coordinated with the US government.

Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who is critical of the government, did not fly to Washington. He was originally on the list, Ortega said. However, the cleric did not want to get on the plane without first talking to the other bishops of Nicaragua.

The new development was received with mixed feelings in Nicaragua. Human rights groups welcomed the release, but denounced the deportations and displacement. The 80-year-old Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez wrote on Twitter: “Today is a big day for the Nicaraguan freedom struggle”. The former prisoners went into exile, but also to freedom. Ramírez had also left the country in 2021 and did not return because he was threatened with imprisonment there.

According to the opposition, there are so far about 250 political prisoners in Nicaragua. Ortega’s government has been using increasingly harsher means against its critics in recent times, democratic institutions and civil rights already undermined. In 2018, more than 350 people were killed in anti-government protests. Before his controversial re-election in 2021, Ortega had seven competing candidates arrested. They have now all been deported to the United States.

Thousands of government critics had left the Central American country in recent years, often fearing repression or even arrest. Many of them moved to the US. In addition to a lack of political freedom, poverty and natural disasters have displaced countless people from the largest country in Central America, which has a population of about 6.7 million.

Former Sandinista revolutionary Ortega first came to power after the fall of dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. He first belonged to the ruling junta and then rose to president, but was voted out in 1990. He returned as head of state and government in 2007. A term limit on the president was later abolished by constitutional reform. Ortega’s wife, Rosario Murillo, has served as vice president since 2017. (sda/dpa)