On February 9, the government of Daniel Ortega released 222 opponents, who were deported by air to the United States.
Magistrate Octavio Rothschuh, president of Chamber One of the Managua Court of Appeals, then released a document ordering the “immediate and effective deportation” of 222 people, sentenced for committing “acts that undermine the independence, sovereignty and self-determination of the town; for inciting violence, terrorism and economic destabilization”.
The United States received them and gave them a parole for two years appealing to the new program that the Biden administration unveiled in January for Haitians, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
Among those deported was former commander Dora María Téllez, one of the most charismatic figures of the young Sandinista Popular Revolution. “I have not disappointed the young guerrilla that I was,” she told the BBC after being released after twenty months in prison.
Later, the same regulation was applied to another 94 Nicaraguans, among them the writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli, the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Báez, the former commander of the Sandinista Popular Revolution Luis Carrión and the human rights activist Wilma Nunez. Also former Foreign Minister Norman Caldera and journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro.
The presiding magistrate of the Court of Appeals of the Managua Circumscription, Ernesto Rodríguez Mejía, read the sentence in a presentation before the media. “Consider the defendants as traitors to the homeland, for which the accessory penalties of absolute and special disqualification are imposed on them to hold public office, to hold public office, on behalf of or at the service of the State of Nicaragua, as well as to hold office. popular election and the loss of their citizen rights in perpetuity, respectively,” the official read.
Gioconda Belli responds with poetry to the Ortega government, which withdrew her nationality
Now Chile, Argentina and Mexico have just announced that they have opened their doors to the more than 300 Nicaraguan opponents who were stripped of their nationality by the government of Daniel Ortega.
The two South American countries, which broke the news on Tuesday, indicated their willingness to offer their citizenship to Nicaraguans who have been treated “unfairly” and have been victims of “persecution.”
The spokesperson for the Argentine presidency, Gabriela Cerruti, published on her Twitter account that her government was willing to grant citizenship to both Ramírez and Belli, as well as to “all those who are suffering from what is happening in Nicaragua.”
“The history of our country has taught us that the defense of democracy and human rights, and solidarity among peoples, transcend political situations,” the Chilean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
For his part, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday, during his morning press conference, that Nicaraguans could have “asylum, nationality or whatever they want” in Mexico.
Spain, which last week had already announced a similar measure for the more than 200 opponents, extended the offer of citizenship to the second group.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) condemned last week the decision of the Ortega government, considering that it went against international law.
