The international community’s repudiation of President Daniel Ortega’s decision to withdraw the Nicaraguan nationality of more than 300 opponents -among them activists, journalists, writers and poets- continues to increase, as revealed by a letter signed by 483 intellectuals.
In the letter, the firmanes express their concern about Ortega’s decision to banish opponents, such as the writer and Cervantes Prize winner for literature Sergio Ramírez or the renowned poet Gioconda Belli.
In the letter, the signatories urge the international community to speak out and assume an “active role in all actions” that can stop “the authoritarian drift” of the “regime” of Ortega and his wife, the vice president and spokesperson, Rosario Murillo..
Among the signatory intellectuals are some former Costa Rican presidents, such as Luis Guillermo Solís and Carlos Alvarado Quesada; as well as journalists, such as Carlos Dada, founder of the investigative newspaper El Faro, which has revealed cases of corruption of various governments, including that of President Nayib Bukele, in El Salvador.
The intellectuals indicated that Ortega’s actions violate the fundamental human right to have a nationality and the prohibition against arbitrarily depriving oneself of it, and indicated that it is consigned in article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Ortega’s move has drawn criticism even from left-wing rulers such as Chile’s Gabriel Boric and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro.
The Nicaraguans initially exiled were the 222 political prisoners who were released and welcomed by Washington, and later 94 more people, who according to the Nicaraguan justice system are accused of alleged “treason against the homeland.”
Initially, after the release and withdrawal of their nationality of 222 former political prisoners, Ortega himself expressed his satisfaction with the measure after expelling them to the US: “We already breathe peace, thank God.”
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