The United States said on Thursday it had secured the release of 135 political prisoners from Nicaragua, the latest mass transfer by the increasingly authoritarian government of President Daniel Ortega.
The White House said the prisoners included members of religious organizations, students and others whom Ortega and his team considered “a threat to their authoritarian rule.”
The State Department said the released prisoners arrived Thursday in neighboring Guatemala, where reformist President Bernardo Arevalo has worked closely with Washington on the key issue of migration.
They will have the opportunity to go to the United States.
“We urge the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
“The people of Nicaragua want and deserve a restored democracy, where all people can exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms free from fear of persecution or reprisal.”
Photo Credit: AFP
This latest move follows the mass release of over 200 prisoners in February 2023 who were sent to the United States.
Former inmates have largely welcomed the release from prison, though some human rights activists view Ortega’s move with skepticism, seeing him as trying to at least gain favor with Washington by getting rid of his opponents.
The latest release includes 13 members of the Texas-based evangelical group Mountain Gateway, the White House said.
Nicaraguan authorities earlier this year charged members of the group, which does mass evangelism as well as humanitarian work, with money laundering and organized crime.
Mountain Gateway strongly denies the allegations, saying that Nicaraguan authorities are able to review its budget.
Ortega, a 78-year-old former leftist guerrilla who fought US-backed forces in the 1980s, returned to power in 2007 and was initially seen as more moderate.
But he has since abolished presidential term limits, taken control of all branches of government and launched a sweeping crackdown on groups he saw as a threat to his rule, including the Catholic Church and nongovernmental organizations.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
