The Government of Spain extended the offer to grant Spanish nationality to the 94 Nicaraguan citizens who, this week, were declared “stateless” by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, among them the human rights defender Vilma Núñez; the writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli; and the director of CONFIDENTIAL and this week, Carlos Fernando Chamorro, and his wife Desiree Elizondo.
The proposal of the Spanish Government is extended “to any citizen of Nicaragua who in the future may be left stateless by the decisions” of the Executive of Ortega.
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, communicated the decision of this humanitarian gesture to Ramírez, who in turn wrote a letter to the President of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, as confirmed this Friday by the Ministry in an official statement.
This offer is in addition to the one made on February 10 by the Sánchez Executive to the 222 people expelled from Nicaragua and whose Nicaraguan nationality was withdrawn.
Last week, the Spanish Government had explained that “the procedure that will be used is the granting of Spanish nationality by naturalization letter, to prevent them from being stateless.”
Also, that “it is a government decision that would take very little time” and that the process would be “immediate”. In response, several of the released political prisoners who were exiled to the United States thanked the gesture and affirmed that it will be one of the options for them.
There are 317 declared Nicaraguans “stateless”
In eight days, the Ortega regime has already accumulated 317 Nicaraguans stripped of their nationality. The first group was that of the 222 political prisoners exiled to the United States, which included seven people who tried to challenge Ortega for the presidency of the country last year and five priests, who were disqualified for life from holding public or elected office.
On February 10, the dictatorship stripped the Bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, of his nationality, who that day was sentenced in an express trial to 26 years and four months in prison for alleged crimes of “conspiracy”, “propagation of false news”, “aggravated obstruction of functions” and contempt of authority”. The spurious trial was scheduled for this week, but was moved up after the religious refused to accept exile to the United States.
“What we have is arrogant behavior, from someone who is considered the head of the Church in Nicaragua”Ortega said on national television on Thursday, February 9, and then confirmed that the priest was transferred to La Modelo prison, where he remains in a maximum security cell.
This Wednesday, February 15, the Public Ministry —controlled by the dictatorship— stripped another 94 Nicaraguans of their nationality, including the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Báez; the former commander of the National Directorate of the FSLN in the eighties, Luis Carrión; the ex-guerrilla Mónica Baltodano; former Foreign Minister Norman Caldera; the former ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Arturo McFields; ex-prosecutor Yader Morazán, and ex-deputy Eliseo Núñez Morales, among others.
These were declared “fugitives from justice” and disqualified from holding public office, holding public office on behalf of or at the service of the State of Nicaragua, as well as holding positions of popular election and perpetual loss of their citizen rights. . It also ordered “the immobilization and confiscation in favor of the State of Nicaragua of all real estate and companies that the defendants have registered in their favor, either in their personal capacity, or of legal persons or companies in which they participate as partners, to answer for the crimes committed.”
**With information from EFE**
