Status: 02/10/2023 10:04 a.m
The Nicaraguan government has released 222 political prisoners and transferred them to the United States. Activists breathe a sigh of relief, but disillusionment prevails: the deportation is like being banished to exile.
“Ortega will fall!” activists and family members chanted in unison while waiting for the 222 political prisoners at Washington Airport. A private plane with the former prisoners from Nicaragua landed in the late morning. Among them were many students who took part in protests in 2018. Security forces had bloodily suppressed the demonstrations at the time. More than 300 people died and thousands were injured.
The former Sandinista guerrilla commander Dora María Téllez, who had been Ortega’s companion in the fight against the former dictator Anastasio Somoza, was also on board the plane. Likewise the journalist Cristiana Chamorro and her brother Juan Sebastian Chamorro.
Before the last presidential election, the two siblings ran as opposing candidates and, like many other opposition figures, the incumbent President Daniel Ortega had them arrested without further ado in order to eliminate them. After his arrival, Juan Sebastian Chamorro was relieved: “It’s a very emotional moment. There are people among us who have been behind bars for more than three years.”
Nicaraguan opposition leader Felix Maradiaga is also among those released and has been reunited with his family in the United States.
Image: AP
Release equals banishment
The message of release went around the world. The Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli received the news in Madrid: “I am so glad that you are finally out of these dungeons where you lived in the worst conditions and were practically sentenced to death,” said Belli. There was no medical care and the prisoners were close to starvation. “But it is precisely this ban that shows the brutality of the regime and the lack of justice.”
Belli is currently living in exile in Madrid herself because she had to leave her hometown of Managua after receiving massive threats. She is one of the biggest critics of the authoritarian government of Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo. The political prisoners are now free, but at the same time they were deported, says Belli.
With the deportation, the former prisoners were literally banished from their homeland, says the author. They would have been deprived of all their rights as citizens. Of course, the release is also a great relief for the families. But the injustice in Nicaragua would still continue.
US Secretary of State Blinken sees opportunity for dialogue
On Thursday, parliament passed a constitutional reform to strip those deported of their Nicaraguan citizenship. In court, the judge read the grounds for the deportation live during a television broadcast:
In accordance with the resolution of February 8, 2023, we are ordering the immediate expulsion of 222 people. They have been convicted of acts that undermine the independence, sovereignty and self-determination of the people, of inciting violence, terrorism and economic destabilization, but also of damaging the nation’s highest interests.
The dismissal came as a surprise, the family members had not been informed in advance. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the release, saying it allows for further dialogue between the US and the Central American country.
Nicaragua in deep political crisis
Roy Molina, one of the activists who awaited the released prisoners at the airport in Washington, is combative: “This is only the first step. We will liberate Nicaragua so that it can become democratic again. Just like we overthrew the Somoza dictatorship, we will we can do it with Daniel Ortega and Rosario Morillo.”
Nicaragua has been in a political crisis for years. The government cracks down on anyone who expresses criticism, be it the media, non-governmental organizations or the church, which has long been considered a haven for critical voices and has increasingly become one itself.
The deportation decision came just days after five Catholic priests, among others, were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on charges of “conspiracy” by a court in Nicaragua over the weekend.
There is a climate of fear in Nicaragua, says an anonymous contact from the church: “We can’t do anything here without the police or the government noticing. We’re all being checked.”