Last Updated on 05/09/2024 by Arun jain
The United States has released 135 political prisoners held in Nicaragua, including students and members of faith organizations.
In a statement Thursday, US National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan said the prisoners were among thousands of Nicaraguans who had been held over the past several years. Right crackdown by the government of President Daniel Ortega.
The prisoners were sent to neighboring Guatemala and, according to Sullivan, from there to the US.
The office of Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo confirmed that a plane carrying previously detained Nicaraguans had landed in the country early Thursday morning.
“No one should be imprisoned for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights to free expression, association and practice of their religion,” Sullivan said. statement.
He said the political prisoners were arrested because they were considered a threat to the “dictatorial regime” of Ortega and his vice president and wife, Rosario Murillo. He called on Nicaragua to “immediately end the arbitrary arrest and detention of its citizens simply for exercising their fundamental freedoms.”
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also praised the release in a post on social media platform X.
“Nicaraguaans deserve democracy and freedom from oppression in their homeland,” the top diplomat wrote.
The announcement comes two days after the United Nations Human Rights Office announced it report saying that Ortega’s government “continues to persecute not only those who express dissenting opinions, but any person or organization that acts independently or does not fall directly under their control”.
The report details dozens of cases where detainees were “tortured by various forms of sexual abuse and electric shocks”.
The crackdown began largely amid student-led protests swept the country In 2018.
Those protests were fueled by proposed Social Security legislation that would increase workers’ contributions while reducing pensions and other benefits.
Thousands took to the streets for peaceful demonstrations, but Ortega’s government declared their protests illegal and deployed paramilitary forces. From the beginning of protests in April 2018 to July 2019, approx 355 people were killed.
Ortega’s strong response is seen as part of a broader autocratic trend. The president, who came to power in 2007, has since abolished presidential term limits and consolidated all branches of government under his control.
His administration has continued to take steps to crack down on dissent, including before the most recent elections in 2021.
Authorities arrested or forcibly deported dozens of opposition candidates in the lead-up to the vote. They too Imprisonment Several leaders of the country’s influential Catholic Church, who served as mediators during the protests.
Last week, for example, Ortega’s government banned 169 non-governmental groups, a total of Prohibited Institutions More than 4,000 since 2018.
In a statement earlier this week, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said it was “distressing to see the continued erosion of civil space in Nicaragua and how the exercise of basic civil and political rights is becoming increasingly difficult”.
The UN report also raised concerns over a proposed new law that would allow Nicaraguan authorities to prosecute individuals living abroad for certain crimes. The law can be used to “coerce and intimidate deported nationals and foreigners from the legitimate exercise of their freedom of expression and other rights,” the report said.
Among those released this week were 13 members of Mountain Gateway, a Texas-based evangelical Christian group. Authorities in Nicaragua have accused the group of money laundering and organized crime, charges it has denied.
The release follows a similar flight in February 2023, when 200 Nicaraguan prisoners were freed and the U.S.
While rights watchdogs generally welcome such releases, they have also expressed concern that they provide an opportunity for Ortega. Flush Nicaragua of dissent. Ortega has also called for previously freed prisoners in Nicaragua to be stripped of their citizenship and property.
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