The former heads of State and Government, members of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA), joined the massive condemnation of opponents and national and international organizations for the exile of 222 political prisoners in Nicaragua.
“Knowing that 222 political prisoners have been exiled by the dictatorial regime of Nicaragua, after which they are declared stateless, they express their militant solidarity,” says the IDEA statement, dated February 10.
Related news: This is the list of political prisoners exiled by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega
They also reiterate their condemnation of religious persecution, the attacks on personal freedoms and freedom of expression and of the press, as well as the rights to democracy “in a context of serious generalized and systematic violations of human rights that does not cease and are carried out by the different state powers”.
Faced with the constant repressive wave of the Daniel Ortega regime against Nicaraguans, the former heads of state made a call to the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations (UN) to the authorities of the Organization of American States ( OAS) as well as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to “protect the inalienable right to nationality of the victims.”
They also demand that all those exiled by order of the Ortega government “be restored to the recognition of their legal personalities, and that the other 38 remaining political prisoners, including Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, Bishop of Matagalpa, enjoy freedom.” .
On February 9, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo released 222 political prisoners from different Nicaraguan prisons, to later exile them to the United States, and also sentenced Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, bishop, to 26 years in prison and stripped of his nationality. of the Diocese of Matagalpa.
Related news: Ortega justice sentences Monsignor Rolando Álvarez to 26 years in prison
The repressive action of the Nicaraguan dictatorship has intensified since 2018, after the social protests that left a balance of at least 355 murdered —according to human rights organizations—, and thousands of exiles.
Among the ex-presidents who are demanding an end to the repression in Nicaragua are José María Aznar, from Spain, Oscar Arias, from Costa Rica, Alfredo Cristiani, from El Salvador, Iván Duque, from Colombia, Vicente Fox, from Mexico, Federico Franco, from Paraguay, Felipe Calderón H, from Mexico.
Rafael Ángel Calderón, from Costa Rica, Eduardo Frei T., from Chile, César Gaviria T., Colombia Lucio Gutiérrez, from Ecuador, Osvaldo Hurtado, from Ecuador, Luis Alberto Lacalle, from Uruguay, Mauricio Macri, from Argentina, Jamil Mahuad W. .. from Ecuador, Carlos Mesa G., from Bolivia, Lenin Moreno, Ecuador.
The other characters who signed the statement were Mireya Moscoso, from Panama, Andrés Pastrana, from Colombia, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez E, from Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solís, from Costa Rica, Juan Carlos Wasmosy, from Paraguay, Álvaro Uribe, Colombia, Sebastián Pinera, Chile. Jorge Tuto Quiroga, from Bolivia.
