The chartered flight, which moved from Managua to Washington DC to the 222 exiled political prisoners by the Ortega regime, arrived in the United States at 10:30 in the morning (Nicaragua time), but it was until approximately three hours later that those released were able to meet with their relatives and the Nicaraguan diaspora that they arrived to receive them at the air terminal. .
Former presidential candidate and released political prisoner, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, said that the Nicaraguan authorities at no time informed him that he would be exiled from Nicaragua and that at the time he was removed from the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, known as El Chipote, he thought that he would They were taking them to La Modelo prison, located in the municipality of Tipitapa.
“They put us on buses and we didn’t know where we were going. Some of us thought we were going to the Modelo prison and, at that moment, the three buses that transported the prisoners coming from El Chipote turned to the right, at the Air Force. That’s when we realized that we were flying out of the country, we didn’t know where to go,” Chamorro said.
? LIVE | The arrival of 222 exiled political prisoners in the United States https://t.co/hWKld1oEIb
– Confidential Nicaragua (@confidencial_ni) February 9, 2023
A political prisoner refused to sign his release
Chamorro also explained that, when boarding the plane, the staff of the US Embassy in Managua notified them that 223 people would be transferred, but that one person refused to sign their release and decided to stay in Nicaragua.
The prisoners of conscience were taken from the different penitentiary centers of Nicaragua, in the early hours of this Thursday, February 9, and envoys on a direct flight to the US
The news began to circulate in national and international media, and the dictatorship activated its propaganda. First, the Court of Appeals of Managua (TAM) issued a resolution to justify the “deportation” of the prisoners of conscience, despite the fact that in reality it is a banishment. Then, the National Assembly expressly reformed the Political Constitution to strip them of their nationalityalleging “treason against the homeland.”
Faced with this situation, the former presidential candidate and political prisoner, Félix Maradiaga, warned that “the country is carried in the heart. He assured “even though they wanted to banish us, Nicaragua is carried in our blood and we will always be Nicaraguans.”
Maradiaga also highlighted that upon their departure from the country they all signed a one-line document, which “said that we left Nicaragua voluntarily, they did not have further information.” It was not until later that he heard the news that they had been stripped of their Nicaraguan nationality.
Deportees may remain in the US.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Nicaragua, Kevin Sullivan, said that the 222 people who were released from prison in Nicaragua “are receiving different types of assistance to be able to integrate into the United States” and that they may remain in that country under the program. of the humanitarian parole.
“We join the joy of their families and loved ones. We also recognize that it is a positive step by the Government of Nicaragua and we hope that this can continue,” said Ambassador Sullivan. “It was a unilateral measure by the government of President (Daniel) Ortega, we did organize ourselves to receive them and give them the necessary assistance,” he continued.
Along the same lines, the deputy assistant secretary of state, from the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Emily Mendrala, told reporters who were outside the hotel, where some former Nicaraguan politicians remain, that the administration of President Joe Biden values what happened as “a positive step”, but warned that there is still “a lot of concern” about the human rights situation in Nicaragua.
“We have said it before and I repeat it today, we have the commitment to dialogue with the government (of Nicaragua) and we see today’s step as a positive step,” Mendrala stressed.
