Nicaragua’s government says it’s freeing detainees after pressure from the US
MEXICO CITY (AP) — of Nicaragua The country will release dozens of prisoners as the United States steps up pressure, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday. Leftist President Daniel Ortegaone week after dismissal former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
On Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua said Venezuela had taken an important step toward peace by releasing what it described as “political prisoners.” However, in Nicaragua “more than 60 people, including priests, religious, the sick, and the elderly, were unjustly detained or disappeared.”
“Dozens of people in the National Prison System have returned to their homes and families,” the Home Office said in a statement on Saturday.
It is not yet clear who was released and under what conditions. The Nicaraguan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The government has implemented an ongoing crackdown since mass social protests in 2018 that were violently suppressed.
The Nicaraguan government imprisoned and then exiled dissidents, religious leaders, journalists, and more, stripping hundreds of Nicaraguan citizens and assets. It has closed more than 5,000 mostly religious organizations since 2018 and forced thousands to flee the country. Nicaraguan government He often accused critics and opponents of conspiring against the government.
In recent years, the government has released hundreds of detained political opponents, critics and activists. IT stripped them of their Nicaraguan citizenship and we sent them to other countries like the USA and Guatemala. Observers described it as an effort to break free from the opposition’s grasp and balance international human rights criticism. Many of these Nicaraguans He was forced into a state of “statelessness”.
On Saturday X day, the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs once again criticized the Nicaraguan government. “Nicaraguans voted for a president in 2006, not an illegitimate lifelong dynasty,” the report said. “Rewriting the constitution and crushing dissent will not eliminate Nicaraguans’ desire to live free from tyranny.”
Danny Ramírez-Ayérdiz, secretary general of the Nicaraguan human rights organization CADILH, said he had mixed feelings about the publications announced on Saturday.
“On the one hand, I am pleased. All political prisoners are subjected to some form of torture. But on the other hand, I know that these people and their families will continue to be harassed, surveilled and monitored by the police.”
Ramírez-Ayérdiz said the release of the prisoners was a response to pressure exerted by the United States. “There is definitely a huge fear within the regime that the United States could completely dismantle it,” he said.
