Dozens of state workers and supporters of the government of Daniel Ortega marched on Saturday to “celebrate” the expulsion from Nicaragua of more than 200 political prisonersincluding priests, former diplomats and opponents.
“They all left, they all reached the plane, we continue straight ahead. We want peace,” said a woman marching on an avenue in Managua.
Unlike opposition marches, which are prohibited in the Central American country, pro-government protesters marched in the capital, Managua, with red and black flags, a symbol of the Sandinista Front party, and with banners alluding to Daniel Ortega and his wife. , Vice President Rosario Murillo.
The call ended with a concert on Hugo Chávez avenue, in Managua.
The event was convened two days after the Ortega administration released and expelled more than 222 political prisoners from the country, after stripping them of their nationality for being considered “traitors to the homeland.”
Among them were some former government officials such as Roberto Larios, spokesman for the Supreme Court of Justice, who is now in Washington.
“I never stop being a citizen”
The reaction from the opposition side was immediate after the march. Several Nicaraguan prisoners released said that Ortega does not have the power to take away their nationality.
“I never stop being a Nicaraguan citizen. I was born there, I grew up there and I want to die there,” she told the voice of america Opposition member Suyen Barahona, president of the Nicaraguan Democratic Union (UNAMOS).
Barahona appreciates that Nicaragua’s decision “is juggling, inconsistent” and without legal support. “Nowhere in the world can someone be left without citizenship, they are the reflection of a dictatorship that can no longer be sustained,” he added.
In fact, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights asked the Nicaraguan government “restore the political and civil rights” of the opponents, including nationality.
At the moment, the United States government welcomed the released political prisoners and granted them a humanitarian parole for two years, while Spain offered them nationality as a gesture of solidarity.
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