Members of the group of 94 people stripped of their Nicaraguan nationality denounced the “brutal aggression” of which they are victims by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
Through a press conference called “We are and will continue to be Nicaraguans,” the signatories of the statement rejected the annulment of their nationality and indicated that the action against them was “for thinking differently and demanding justice, democracy, and freedom (…) The Nationality is an inalienable right and no one can take it away from us,” they stressed.
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They remarked that despite the repressive measures of the Ortega dictatorship, they will continue to be Nicaraguans “until the end of our days, because we were born there and because we are an inseparable part of that brave, happy and generous people (…)”.
They also criticized “the barbarity” that the Ortega regime has carried out by trying to “crush” them civilly, economically and morally, through the
removal of their names from public records; as well as the prohibition to exercise civil and political rights in perpetuity.
«The confiscation of our patrimonies; the cancellation of pension payments, and declaring us fugitives from justice are in order to prevent us from continuing in the fight for democracy, “he said.
Crimes against humanity
On the other hand, they insisted – as human rights organizations have pointed out – that the stripping of their nationality constitute crimes against humanity, “which are added to those committed by the regime in 2018 and, as such, must be known by the International Criminal Court, as indicated by the Colombian government in its statement.
“This blow to our essential rights exposes the criminal nature of a dictatorship without ethical, legal and political limits, which has imposed a regime of terror that permeates all strata of Nicaraguan society,” said those now declared stateless.
They emphasized that the dismantling of the totalitarian police state is essential so that Nicaraguans can recover their rights, that the exiles can return safely and “that justice be done to the victims and we conquer democracy.”
As for the 35 political prisoners who are still in different jails in Nicaragua, the group of 94 citizens demanded their immediate release, particularly that of Monsignor Rolando Alvarez, Bishop of Matagalpa, also stripped of his nationality, “who preferred prison to exile.”
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“For his dignified attitude, he was sentenced to 26 years, transferred to the Modelo prison and confined in a punishment cell,” they recalled.
For his part, Héctor Mairena, a member of Unamos and who was included in the list of the 94 stateless, said that Ortega is acting with totalitarianism in order to “control all state institutions and put all their actions into operation repressive”.
“In Nicaragua what has been established is a totalitarian and authoritarian State terrorism that intends to crush any voice that criticizes it as we have done,” he said.
The economist Enrique Sáenz expressed that after the stripping of his nationality and his assets “anything else can be expected from a cruel and ruthless dictatorship, but we will act legally not only in international instances, but also in jurisdictional instances.”
On February 15, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, through the Judiciary, ordered the stripping of Nicaraguan nationality from 94 people. Among the new “stateless” are journalists, activists, human rights defenders, former regime officials and opponents.
According to a resolution read by Judge Ernesto Rodríguez, magistrate of the Court of Appeals of Managua, the Nicaraguans were declared “traitors of the homeland” and for this reason they lost their citizenship, protected by Law 1145, the law that reformed article 21 of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Nicaragua.
