The Sandinista dictator, Daniel Ortega, revealed that the idea of banishing the 222 political prisoners he had imprisoned in various penitentiaries in Nicaragua was given to him by his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, who has always been suspected of being the author of the worst ideas for the commission of crimes against humanity and violations of the human rights of Nicaraguans.
“Rosario told me: ‘why don’t we tell the ambassador (of the United States) to take all these terrorists away.’ Tell them, maybe they listen to it there, because it really wouldn’t occur to me, “said the president this Thursday night on national television.
According to Ortega, Murillo called the US ambassador Kevin Sullivan and “raised” the proposal.
“I didn’t expect a positive response, I couldn’t really think of a positive response. Also, what could they have imagined, ‘what are they going to ask us, are they going to ask us to lift the sanctions?’” the dictator said.
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Ortega pointed out that the decision to exile the opponents was a matter of “honor, dignity and patriotism”, and not to ask that “sanctions be lifted.”
“No, we are not asking that the sanctions be lifted, we are not asking for anything in return, it is a matter of honor, dignity, patriotism and that they take away their mercenaries,” he said.
The US government confirmed that Ortega “unilaterally” decided to release 222 political prisoners, and rejected the idea that this decision was the result of pressure from Washington.
Initial list was 228 political prisoners
In his speech, Ortega confessed that the initial list of political prisoners was 228, and not 222, but the United States did not admit four of them: Eliseo de Jesús Castro Baltodano, Walder Antonio Ruiz Rivera, José Manuel Urbina Lara and Jaime Enrique Navarrete Blandon.
The cases of these four people who, according to Ortega, were denied entry by the US government refer to the following: Castro Baltodano is accused of being a member of a criminal gang, which manufactured bombs and homemade weapons; Urbina Lara charged with reckless homicide; and Navarrete Blandón for possession of psychotropic drugs, other controlled substances and illegal possession of weapons.
“There were a total of 228, that is the list of us, that we had of all these people who had participated in an act against sovereignty, against peace, against the Nicaraguan people (…) And the first response they gave us to this list , which was the original with 228, is that they do not accept four prisoners who are for all these crimes,” said Ortega.
The other two political prisoners who were on the list but did not travel to the United States, and were accepted by the US government, were Monsignor Rolando Álvarez and Fanor Alejandro Ramos, the latter accused of possessing 368 kilos of cocaine, but relatives assert that it was arrested for not accepting being a paramilitary of the regime in the 2018 rebellion.
The dictator assumed that Ramos did not prefer to go to the United States for “fear” that they would investigate him in that country and link him to drug trafficking.
