The U.S. Department of State announced a win for human rights and diplomacy today with the arrival at Dulles International Airport of 222 political prisoners, a U.S. citizen among them, released from Nicaraguan prisons.
“The individuals released from Nicaraguan custody include political and business leaders, journalists, civil society representatives, and students,” according to a Department of State press statement.
They “had been imprisoned by the Government of Nicaragua for exercising their fundamental freedoms and have endured lengthy unjust detentions,” the statement said.
“[The] release marks a constructive step towards addressing human rights abuses in the country and opens the door to further dialogue between the United States and Nicaragua regarding issues of concern.”
The names of the freed prisoners were not released.
A Repressive Regime
Nicaragua is the poorest nation in Central America, with rampant unemployment, and increasing political and financial oppression, suppression of freedom of speech, and extensive corruption under the rule of Daniel Ortega.First elected president in 2006, Ortega—a socialist and former leader of the Sandinista guerilla organization—is now in his fourth term.
And yet, the legitimacy of the voting in elections that returned Ortega to power has been widely questioned by leaders from democracies around the world, including President Joe Biden, who slammed Nicaraguan presidential elections as a “sham” in 2021.
Freedom House, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that researches and provides information on threats to freedom worldwide, and supports democracy initiatives internationally, has reported extensively on the lack of freedom and government crackdowns on freedom of expression in Nicaragua.
An anti-government protester takes part in a caravan of cars and motorcycles to demand an end to violence in Ticuantepe, Nicaragua, on July 15, 2018.Reuters/Oswaldo Rivas
“In 2018, state forces, with the aid of informally allied armed groups, responded to a mass antigovernment movement with violence and repression,” declared Freedom House. ‘The rule of law collapsed as the government moved to put down the movement, with rights monitors reporting the deaths of at least 325 people, extrajudicial detentions, disappearances, and torture.
“Since then, antigovernment activists report surveillance and monitoring, and Ortega has consolidated his power with sweeping arrests of his political opponents.”
