Question: what is more difficult than exile in a foreign country where one’s life must begin again in an unfamiliar land? Answer: torture and imprisonment in one’s native county.
The 135 political prisoners who were imprisoned in Nicaragua and were released to Guatemala on September 5 now know both realities.
The United States secured their release from prison on humanitarian grounds, and Guatemala’s President Bernado Arévalo generously agreed to welcome them. The former prisoners are being offered the opportunity to apply for lawful ways to rebuild their lives in the United States or other countries.
At a press briefing in Guatemala, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Eric Jacobstein said, “It was an incredible, emotional experience to greet the individuals on the tarmac here as they took steps to reclaim their lives and freedom.” He noted that the former prisoners had had “an extremely difficult time” in Nicaragua and that “[they] came off the plane saying, ‘God bless America,’ ‘God bless Guatemala.’”
Among the released prisoners are 13 individuals affiliated with Mountain Gateway, a Texas-based religious organization, as well as human rights defenders, Catholic lay people, students, and journalists.
They make up the latest of several tranches of political prisoners the Ortega-Murillo regime has sent into exile in recent months. The first group consisted of 222 dissidents released to the United States in February 2023 – all of whom were stripped of their citizenship. In January 2024, the regime released revered Catholic Bishop Rolando Jose Álvarez and 15 other clergy members and handed them over to the Vatican.
Since 2018, when protests broke out throughout the country against the 11-year rule of President Daniel Ortega, the regime has violently suppressed and attempted to silence its critics. That suppression has not ceased. Two reports this year, one by the U.S. State Department on human rights in Nicaragua, and one by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, testify to ongoing arbitrary arrests, mistreatment of detainees, and intimidation of political opponents.
“We urge the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement. “The Nicaraguan people want and deserve a restored democracy where all can exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms, free from fear of persecution or reprisal.”
