The journalist from Matagalpa, David Mendoza, who was ordered by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo to close his local media outlet on August 2, crossed the Rio Grande to reach the United States.
Through a video published on social networks on September 1, Mendoza reported that he made this journey with his wife and ten-year-old son.
The family managed to irregularly cross the border between Mexico and the United States on August 30, and this Thursday, he was released by the US immigration authorities.
“At this precise moment, after more than a week of fighting, we have managed to cross the Rio Grande and we are already on North American soil,” Mendoza said in the video.
Related news: David Mendoza refused to ally himself with the FSLN and a month later his channel was closed
Mendoza owns the RB3 channel in Río Blanco, where he is from. He had been on the air for 18 years until the regime ordered the Institute of Telecommunications and Post Office (Telcor) to withdraw the signal from the cable television grid of that municipality.
Mendoza that before the regime took his television station off the air, a “colleague” called him on the phone to recommend that he “ally” himself with the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party, the government party, but he answered that he would not join any political party, because he was a journalist.
After the closure of his outlet, Mendoza feared for his life, since since he began his television project he received threats from Sandinista sympathizers, and he was forced to leave the country, along with his family, to seek asylum in the United States.
