The Inter-American Press Association (SIP) said this Friday that it was relieved by the release of 222 political prisoners by the government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, although he emphasized his “repudiation” of the fact that the ex-residents were exiled and stripped of their nationality Nicaraguan.
The IAPA welcomed the release of all the people who arrived in the United States on Thursday, in what is already considered one of the largest prisoner transfer operations in the region. Among those released is the general manager of the newspaper La Prensa and regional vice president of the IAPA, Juan Lorenzo Holmann.
In addition to Holmann, the members of the La Prensa board of directors, Cristiana Chamorro and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, and the journalists Miguel Mora, Miguel Mendoza and Jaime Arellano, among other communicators, students, businessmen, religious and social leaders, were also released and exiled.
In the statement, the IAPA also denounced as an “aberration” the news that “a few hours before two La Prensa drivers were sentenced to 10 years in prison” in another “example of the unhealthy persecution of the dictatorial government [de Ortega] against journalists and media workers”.
Full statement
IAPA expresses relief for the release of Nicaraguan prisoners
The Inter-American Press Association (SIP) expresses “relief” for the release of 222 Nicaraguan prisoners, including Juan Lorenzo Holmann, general manager of La Prensa and regional vice president of the organization, who were deported yesterday to Washington DC The IAPA, sym However, he condemned the recent sentences against two workers of that newspaper.
The president of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Carlos Jornet, said that “although we are encouraged by the release of the prisoners, we repudiate that the regime has deported them from the country and that they are declared traitors for exercising their right to freedom of expression and dissent from the ruling party”.
In addition to Holmann, yesterday the members of the La Prensa board of directors, Cristiana Chamorro and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, and the journalists Miguel Mora, Miguel Mendoza and Jaime Arellano, among other communicators, students, businessmen, religious and social leaders, were released and exiled. Holmman received the “SIP Grand Prize for Press Freedom” in 2021. Mora received the same award in 2018 on behalf of Nicaraguan independent journalism.
Jornet, journalistic director of the Argentine newspaper La Voz del Interior, added: “As we celebrate the liberations, we consider it an aberration that a few hours before two La Prensa drivers were sentenced to 10 years in prison. This is another example of the sick persecution of the dictatorial government against journalists and media workers”.
“Suffering persecution, self-exile or exile are the three options faced today by journalists, media directors and social leaders who do not submit to the dictates of the regime. And thus, the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship is silencing all internal questioning and imposing a thought unique, to perpetuate himself in power”, he emphasized.
The National Assembly of Nicaragua approved yesterday a reform to article 21 of the Constitution. The change would imply that Nicaraguans convicted of “treason” will be stripped of their nationality.
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