The United States Government granted political asylum to the former Nicaraguan politician Ulises Joshua Rivas, originally from Santo Domingo, Chontales. The decision was announced by Judge Rosche Robin, from Chicago, after a Court of Merit was held on Thursday, November 3, that is, the final hearing process where the court listens to the applicant’s story and interviews witnesses.
“The judge gave me a deep interrogation, where I recounted all the things I went through in Nicaragua for being an opponent,” Rivas said.
In interview with Article 66, The 34-year-old opponent recalled that in July 2021 he arrived in the United States, where he spent three months in a detention center in Texas, before being transferred to Chicago, where he remained another two and a half months in detention.
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Under the legal advice of lawyer Ben Crouse and four students of the last year of law school at the University of Madison and Wisconsin, the ex-prisoner of conscience was able to leave on bail and thus continue his process in freedom.
“The process lasted 16 months (…) where all the sufficient evidence was collected to request my political asylum and that the Government of the United States grant me a Court of Merit, in charge of Judge Rosche Robin”, detailed the opponent.
«I spoke with my heart, I moved in my mind to Nicaragua and I was able to tell what I lived and everything that my family had gone through. Already at five in the afternoon —on Thursday— I heard the verdict where the judge said that I could work, I could live in the United States and within a year I would fill out the application to obtain my permanent residence” added relieved the persecuted politician.
The opponent confessed to feeling nervous when he was in front of the court, but as time went by he gained courage to “wake up and tell myself that I had to give everything to be able to obtain my asylum, because I am sure that the United States is a country of democracy and freedom.
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Ulises Rivas affirmed that he will continue to demand justice for the freedom of his brother, the political prisoner Lazarus Rivasand for all prisoners of conscience of the Ortega dictatorship.
“My position remains firm and with my head held high. The flame that began in April 2018 must not go out, and more so for young people who have gone through painful processes », he concluded.
