It’s been one year since 222 political prisoners were released by the Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua and flown to the United States. As State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller noted in a statement marking the anniversary, “The group included human rights defenders, Nicaraguan presidential contenders, political activists, clergy, journalists, students, and members of civil society and business groups.”
On their arrival in the United States, the Nicaraguan political prisoners were welcomed with medical and psychological care and legal assistance. In Nicaragua, however, President Daniel Ortega called them “terrorists.” Nicaragua’s Congress stripped them of their citizenship. A judge declared an additional 94 Nicaraguan dissidents to be traitors and they were also stripped of their property and citizenship.
During the past year, persecution of dissidents in Nicaragua has continued. In September, the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that the government is increasing pressure on human rights defenders to compel them to leave the country. In addition, academic freedom in Nicaragua has been all but eliminated. In August 2023, the government seized the prestigious Jesuit-run University of Central America, the latest in a series of take-overs by the regime of dozens of institutions of higher learning.
The Catholic Church, its clergy and religious continue to be a prime target of the Ortega-Murillo government. Priests have been arrested and imprisoned, most notoriously, Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, Bishop of Matagalpa, who was sentenced to 26 years in prison after refusing to leave the country along with the other dissidents in February 2023. After months spent in the infamous La Modelo prison, Bishop Alvarez was put on a plane to Rome in January 2024 with 18 other Catholic political prisoners. Religious sisters who served the poor in Nicaragua have been expelled from the country and their property confiscated as well.
One year after the more than two hundred political prisoners were released from Nicaragua, State Department Spokesperson Miller said, “Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo continue to unjustly detain or force into exile those who wish to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms in Nicaragua. The United States joins the international community in condemning such efforts to silence the voices of the Nicaraguan people,” he declared. “We renew our calls for the Nicaraguan authorities to restore the full enjoyment of civil and political rights by all Nicaraguans.”
