The National Assembly —dominated by Ortega— approved on the morning of this Thursday, January 9, a reform to the Political Constitution of Nicaragua to strip 222 political prisoners of their nationality, who hours before were “deported” to the United States and stripped of their civil and political rights through a court ruling.
The reform —which was approved with 89 votes, out of a total of 91— modified Article 21 of the Constitution to add: “Traitors to the homeland lose their status as Nicaraguan nationals.”
In addition, in the explanatory statement, the Sandinista legislators recall that in the Law 1055, Law for the Defense of the Rights of Peoples to Independence and Self-determination for Peace“actions that harm the supreme interests of the nation were established, for which reason the Nicaraguans who carry out these acts are considered traitors to the homeland.”
Along the same lines, the Assembly approved minutes later a Special Law Regulating the Loss of Nicaraguan Nationality to regulate the provisions of Article 21 of the Constitution, as stated in the explanatory statement.
The new legal regulations establish in its second article that people sentenced under Law 1055 “will lose their Nicaraguan nationality.”
Banished before passing the law
The constitutional reform and its regulations were approved simultaneously with the announcement made by magistrate Octavio Rothschuh Andino, president of Chamber One of the Court of Appeals of Managua (TAM), regarding the order of “immediate and already effective deportation” of 222 prisoners of conscience, who this morning were embarked on a charter flight that travels to the United States, where it will arrive in the North American capital at noon.
“To protect peace, national security, public order, health, public morality, the rights and freedoms of third parties, those sentenced who, for different crimes, violated the legal and constitutional order, attacking the State of Nicaragua and society Nicaraguan, harming the supreme interest of the nation, therefore the immediate and effective deportation of 222 people is ordered,” the magistrate read.
It also indicated that the “deportation” of the ex-conscience was ordered yesterday, February 8, 2023, through a resolution in which they emphasize that the 222 deported people “were declared traitors to the country and punished for different serious crimes and permanently disabled to exercise public office in the name and service of the State of Nicaragua as well as to hold positions of popular election, leaving their citizen rights perpetually suspended,” he stressed.
Open polls point out illegalities
Given the changes in the Nicaraguan legal framework, the Open Polls Observatory emphasized that the processes used —both to change the sentences of political prisoners and to reform the Constitution— are “totally irregular”, and they warn that “once again uses the institutional framework to try to cover an irregular act, contrary to the law, that violates individual and political liberties with legality.”
They recall that exile “is a crime against humanity” contemplated in the Rome Statute, which establishes it as one of the 11 behaviors that are part of any widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population: Deportation or forced transfer of population: expulsion of people from the area where they are legitimately present without grounds authorized by international law, understanding that deportation involves crossing national borders, while forced transfer occurs within them.
“These types of measures are yet another violation of the human rights of Nicaraguans, in general. And to electoral integrity, specifically, insofar as it limits civil, political and electoral rights”, Urnas Abiertas emphasizes.
