US secures release of 135 Nicaraguan political prisoners

Guatemala City – The United States government announced Thursday that it has secured the release of 135 Nicaraguan political prisoners, who have arrived in Guatemala where they will request entry into the United States or other countries.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement that they were released on humanitarian grounds.

“No one should be imprisoned for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights to free expression, association and practice of religion,” Sullivan said.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Eric Jacobstein, speaking to reporters, said the Nicaraguan government received nothing in return for the prisoners’ release and that the negotiation did not mark any change in U.S. policy toward the government of President Daniel Ortega.

“While the pressure itself has been constant, the planning and execution of this release was swift, and we have worked quickly to facilitate the journey of these individuals and really ensure their safety every step of the way,” Jacobstein said, adding that Nicaragua continues to detain people “unjustly.”

Asked if there were any prisoners Nicaragua was willing to release but who refused to leave, he declined to comment.

Jacobstein, who greeted the Nicaraguans in Guatemala, said that “these are individuals, some of whom have been victims of torture… who have gone through an extremely difficult time, and we found them generally in very good health and spirits.”

One thing that struck the American diplomat in some of his conversations with the prisoners was the “true meanness and cruelty” of the Ortega government in imprisoning people without any justifiable reason.

Among the freed Nicaraguans were 13 members of a Texas-based religious charity, Catholic laypeople, students and others.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo has agreed to welcome the Nicaraguans while they apply for entry into the United States.

Nicaraguans left a Guatemalan air base in the capital on buses Thursday morning, some waving from windows.

The Nicaraguan government did not immediately confirm the announcement of the prisoners’ release.

Nicaraguan human rights defender Haydeé Castillo said the prisoners’ release was a “triumph of the resistance of the Nicaraguan people.” She said the prisoners were not really freed because their release was accompanied by forced displacement from their country.

“No one should be imprisoned for thinking differently,” Castillo said.

He said advocates were reviewing lists to see how many prisoners remain in custody.

Ivannia Alvarez, a Nicaraguan exile and member of the Mechanism for Recognition of Political Prisoners, said her most recent count was 151 incarcerated, suggesting some of them are still detained.

Texas-based religious organization Mountain Gateway has confirmed the release of 13 of its members after nine months in prison.

“This is the day we have been praying for,” said Pastor Jon Britton Hancock, founder of Mountain Gateway, in a statement.

Environmentalist Amaru Ruiz reported on social media that among those released were eight indigenous forest rangers.

“The United States once again calls on the Government of Nicaragua to immediately cease the arbitrary arrest and detention of its citizens simply for exercising their fundamental freedoms,” Sullivan said.

The US government referred to them as political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.

The announcement came just two days after Nicaragua’s National Assembly approved changes to the penal code that allow the government to try Nicaraguans and foreigners in absentia.

Opponents and organizations that have fled or been forced into exile in President Ortega’s years-long campaign to silence critical voices could be fined, sentenced to long prison terms and have their property confiscated by the government under the approved changes.

Last year, the government exiled more than 300 opposition figures, stripping them of their nationality. Many more Nicaraguans have fled to escape the repression that followed mass protests in 2018, which Ortega called a failed coup with international backing.

“These individuals arrived in Guatemala safely and voluntarily,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “We thank President Bernardo Arévalo and his administration for their efforts and support in welcoming them.”

“Nicaraguan authorities unjustly detained these individuals for exercising their fundamental freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and religion or belief,” Blinken said.

The government has closed more than 5,000 organizations since 2018, many of them religious in nature.

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Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Gabriela Selser in Mexico City contributed to this report.